Ticker for January 24, 2019

                
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January 24, 2019   January 24, 2019   January 24, 2019   January 24, 2019


Herb, somebody's going to get cold!




We don't play much hockey in Oklahoma. You probably could have, back in the 1970s
and some of the 80s, back when it used to get REALLY cold for a REALLY long time,
enough to freeze those ponds hard (and stock tanks, if you were lucky enough to
take your axe to those a good part of the winter back then). Heck, I remember
my friends and I skating (with shoes, no skates, which meant "sliding") along
on Buffalo Crick (Creek for you Northerners) for miles with nary a crack on the
ice. Now we just don't get cold and stay cold long enough. You'd fall through the
ice. Of course, with as much drought as we've seen lately, you'd probably just get
wet up to your knees. Not this year, though. Still showing some enormous moisture
totals for the last 30-60 days, despite the recent dry spell.









Since Christmas Day, the 3rd wettest statewide average precip total since at
least 1921. For NC and WC Oklahoma, THE wettest. But everybody has gotten in
on the top-10 rankings. And that keeps us clear on the U.S. Drought Monitor
map! There is some minor drought areas close by, but nothing to worry about
for us just yet.



Nope, we're stuck in something of a boring weather pattern with these
intermittent-but-strong cold fronts, which we'll see later today. Best tie some
string around your sleeves and pantlegs, because here in a bit it's gonna be
colder than a brass toilet seat in the Panhandle. Here are some lovely previews
for later today from our NWS friends.





Take heart...this is yet another glancing blow as that cold air sinks into the
eastern half of the country. We get another of those back-door cold fronts,
from the NE instead of the N-NW. And then we warm up again. And then we get
another strong cold front. Rinse and repeat.



Very little in the way of moisture to work with as each of these fronts scours
the atmosphere right back down to the Gulf with no return flow for the next
front.

SOMEDAY, it will get exciting. Not today, nor tomorrow, nor much of next week.

Do you believe in miracles? No, but I do believe in summer. Waiting...waiting...

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