Ticker for December 27, 2018

                
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December 27, 2018  December 27, 2018  December 27, 2018  December 27, 2018


Would shoulda coulda




ZOUNDS, but that was a lot of rain yesterday. Heck, that was December 2015 style
rains. We had flooding, severe winds and deadly bolts of death flung from the
sky to the ground...errrr, lightning. And while MOST of you would have wanted
that to be at least partially in the form of snow (and that would have been a
LOT of snow), the folks in the Panhandle have probably had their fill this
morning. Many are without power as they deal with blizzard conditions (although
officially only a winter storm warning. Guymon has had about 8 inches for one
of the heaviest amounts, enough to close highways and leave motorists stranded.



Here's a storm report from the NWS Amarillo office from this morning giving a
bit of detail.

0650 AM     HEAVY SNOW       GUYMON                  36.69N 101.48W
12/27/2018  E8.0 INCH        TEXAS              OK   EMERGENCY MNGR

ESTIMATED 6 TO 8 INCHES OF SNOW ON GROUND THROUGHOUT
TEXAS COUNTY. NUMEROUS ACCIDENTS AND JACKNIFED TRUCKS
REPORTED. HIGHWAY 54 CLOSED FROM LIBERAL TO TEXHOMA.

They're dealing with wind gusts of over 40 mph. You won't see them on the
Mesonet wind maps, since the wind anemometers are coated with ice and snow.



You see that wind shift from the northwest up IN the northwest, to the southwest
and then south downstate. That's a lovely arctic cold front, currently giving
the Panhandle their arctic conditions. That shows up quite nicely in the
Mesonet temperature and wind chill maps. "Nicely" is perhaps not the correct
word?





Get ready for an arctic chill for the next couple of days, then a brief warmup,
then another plunge. Very little moisture with the upcoming fronts, however.
If you wanted snow, it's all the timing. But come on, is this REALLY what you
wanted?

(Pic from Guymon this morning...courtesy of Kelly Miller).



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