Ticker for December 16, 2020

                
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December 16, 2020  December 16, 2020  December 16, 2020  December 16, 2020


How about summer?




Am I going to have to pull this winter over? I will if I have to! Another
snowstorm? How cliché. It's not often we get snow falling on snow across such a
large part of Oklahoma. It happens in the northwest (especially the Panhandle)
often enough, but not so much for the rest of us. I haven't mined the data too
much yet (too cold to go mining!), but the last one in my memory was probably
back in February 2011? I don't know why I'm asking you about my memory, but that's
a good...what was I saying again? Ah yes, February 2011. We had a heck of a
snowstorm back on Feb. 1-2, then a gigantic warming west wind the next few days
but I believe there was still snow on the ground by Feb. 9 when we got another
near blizzard. Spavinaw set the 24-hour snowfall record for the state with 27
inches on that date. We famously rose into the 70s a week later and the rest of
the year was downhill from there (2011 was Oklahoma's weather version of 2020).
I'm betting there were more since then, but my chips are all outside under the
snow, so I'll take my memory's word for it.

All that snow has kept us in the deep freeze, with lows dropping into the single
digits above the snowpack this morning.



We can actually see that snowpack out west, even though there are clouds over
central Oklahoma. Check out the satellite view; if you can see rivers and lakes,
you're seeing the surrounding snowpack.



Snow reports are pretty chaotic this morning, due to snow falling on snow. In
general, we saw 8-10 inches in the Woodward County area, then 2-6 inches over
a much broader area surrounding that from the Panhandle down into central
Oklahoma. Simply put, for the last 3 days, Oklahoma has been Snow Central in
the U.S.



We now go back to boring mode, with melting snow the height of our excitement.
And it looks somewhat boring through Christmas, at least at this point. That
can change, as we saw last week when yesterday's storm was but a gleam in the
forecast models' eyes. But for now, we've had our winter.

Bring on summer!

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