Ticker for December 17, 2020

                
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December 17, 2020  December 17, 2020  December 17, 2020  December 17, 2020


Arnett has had some SNOW!




That graphic is what you'd call "busy," at least that's what my kids would say.
But Mother Nature is the busy one, bringing us snowstorm after snowstorm (okay,
three basically, and the first one back in October was really an ice storm for
most). As you can see, through all the noise, Arnett has had more snow than
places that normally have a LOT of snow. Just an oddity of the weather pattern
this season, and even more odd considering the La Nina booming out in the
equatorial Pacific. Here are some official snow totals across the state, although
there are probably locations near to these that have had more or less than
shown here. I'll give you the top-12 I can find.
-***-
Location             Snow Total
Arnett                  32.3"
Fargo                   27.1"
Woodward                21.3"
Forgan                  18.5"
Felt                    16.0"
Kenton                  15.6"
Vici                    15.5"
Fort Supply             12.8"
Waynoka                 12.3"
Mutual                  12.0"
Kingfisher              11.0"
Alva                    11.0"
-****-

For comparison, Arnett averages 10.2" of seasonal snowfall, so they're pegging
the extreme meter already. Places in the Panhandle usually get a tad more than
that, like Kenton with 25.9" of normal seasonal snowfall. But there's still
a ton of winter to go.

Yeah, boo!!

All it takes in one or two storm systems to throw La Nina out the door and have
an extreme year. Speaking of extreme, we still have 1.45% of the state in
extreme drought, 7.75% is in severe/extreme, and 24.68% in at least moderate
drought.



We just can't seem to get the heavy precip to hit those droughty areas.



Now we go back into boring mode, with little moisture being forecast, and
lots of sun.



Christmas came early this year. I'm hoping spring does as well.

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