Ticker for August 30, 2017

                
MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ...
August 30, 2017    August 30, 2017    August 30, 2017    August 30, 2017


40s are the new 50s


We've spent so much time marveling at our rainfall this month that we haven't
really appreciated just how cool it's been. For instance, did ya realize we've
hit 40s in the state the last couple of days? In the Panhandle, of course, but
still...




And the highs have been just as wonderful most of the month, including yesterday
and today.




Here's an eye-popping stat...the Oklahoma Mesonet's 121 stations have recorded
a temperature of at least 100 degrees 22 times during the month of August.

22 TIMES! Not 22 days, just 22 readings across the 121 station network, and I
doubt that goes up before the month is up. The highest reading came at
Kingfisher and Freedom at 103 degrees, both on August 5.

How about another jaw-dropping stat? Okay, there were only 2 days with triple-
digit temperatures in Oklahoma. Of those 22 readings, 20 of them came on August
5 and the other two came on the 19th.

Now we're not out of the woods yet...it will get warm over the weekend into
early next week before another front comes through, but we're not talking
the brutal heat of early Septembers past. Some 90s, mostly. Barely in some
cases.



The upper-level ridge, or heat dome, appears to be planted over the West for
next week as well.



Have we seen the end of summer, and I mean SUMMER (i.e., 105 degrees for a few
days in a row)? Possibly. All it takes is an eastward shift of that heat dome
over the next month or so and we will be hot. But we ain't now, and we won't
be for awhile.

Gary McManus
State Climatologist
Oklahoma Mesonet
Oklahoma Climatological Survey
(405) 325-2253
gmcmanus@mesonet.org