Ticker for January 30, 2020

                
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January 30, 2020   January 30, 2020   January 30, 2020   January 30, 2020


Help is on the way




It's been a mild winter...the fly I saw caught in a spider web this weekend says
it just as much as any thermometer. But darned if it isn't still winter. Cracked
lips and skin, dry brittle hair (I HEARD THAT!), the shock of your fingers on a
metal doorknob AND your gas bill; all are bothersome reminders of why spring and
especially summer are the best seasons in these here parts. Oh, heretics will
continue to proclaim the superiority of fall, but that can be forgiven after a
long (but glorious) Oklahoma summer. But both types can stare in amazement at
those folks who glorify winter. Nay, gentle reader, I don't ridicule, but simply
wish for enlightenment on those that know not of their madness.

Okay, all kidding aside, but if it's gonna be winter AND cold outside from time
to time, couldn't it at least snow a time or two? Now I know some of you folks
have gotten some pretty hefty totals thus far this winter, but for most of the
state, we've been treated to cold rain after MISERABLE. COLD. RAIN!

*Note: the rain is good, but it'd be a darn sight better if that rain came when
it was 65 degrees instead of 34 degrees! You can see the lucky few (we see you,
northern OK) that have gotten appreciable snow thus far.



And if this weekend's glorious (could be more glorious if you added 10-15
degrees to it...fight me) weather wasn't enough, help is obviously on the way.





Wow, 70s (I'll bet an 80 sneaks in there somewhere) on Sunday? But it will get
cold again; REALLY cold again, probably. It's winter. That's what winter does.
But if we look at that top graph, according to the long-term averages (2004-
2018) from the Oklahoma Mesonet, we'll pass through out temperature nadir (no,
not 'naders...those come later in the spring) in the first week of February
and begin a rapid march upwards until we peak at a statewide average high
temperature of 95.2 degrees on August 5. Now obviously it won't work out that
way. The vagaries of day-to-day weather will lay waste to any climatological
attempt at prediction. But still, it's a rough guide to our normal weather
pattern.

Still feels like a long way off. Well, until then, a guy can dream, can't he?
Or hibernate?



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