Ticker for January 13, 2022

                
MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ...
January 13, 2022   January 13, 2022   January 13, 2022   January 13, 2022


Snowpossible




We have a puncher's chance to get some snow this weekend. Unfortunately, we're
playing "Mike Tyson's PUNCH-OUT!!" on the old Nintendo NES, and Mother Nature
got Tyson. So we're all gonna enter some codes on the controller and see if we
can will this thing to happen.

(Pressing A and B repeatedly, then up and down twice on the thumbpad).

Did it work? Well, we won't know until Saturday, I guess. Right now, we're looking
at flurries to possible accumulations of less than an inch across the eastern half
of the state. Everybody gets cold, though, as Blue Norther blows through Friday
night into Saturday morning and gives us all a brain freeze that'll knock you
right back to winter.



Don't let those actual air temperatures fool ya...it's gonna be windy and COLD
on Saturday. Wind chill values will drop down into the single digits and teens
with wind gusts of up to 50 mph. Given how dry it is out west, watch for blowing
dust as that front sweeps in on Friday.



This will be our third big cold front of 2022, I believe? Yep, Mother Nature
saved all of those up from December and is letting loose in turn this month.
We could be seeing more cold air later next week if this CPC 8-14 day temperature
outlook comes to fruition, as it gives indications of cold air spilling down
from the Arctic into the Eastern U.S.



That's a ways out so definitely not locked in yet. What is locked in is dry.
We continue with a desperate need for ANY type of moisture across much of the
state, but especially across western Oklahoma where pct of normal values are
less than 25% over the last 90 days. That's coincidental with record heat, which
is a drought's dream for intensification and spread.









I'm afraid the chances for decent moisture (let's just go ahead and call what
we've seen so far what it is...INDECENT moisture) are slim to none for the
near future. The next 7 days, at least.



That's why I said we'd take just about anything. Not sure about freezing rain.
Well, I AM sure, but not sure everybody else is sure. Hard to choose between
drought vs. a million people without power. Drought it is. Odd, though, that a
staunch anti-winter person like myself would want snow, right? Well, I'm ready
for SOMETHING to happen. Sure, record temperatures are right in a climatologist's
wheelhouse, but some snow would sure liven things up. Up until now, our snow
fortunes have rested on a few flurries here and there (mostly there).



Compare that to last year when everybody had had at least a few inches of snow,
and the NW quarter had over 2 feet! This is through Jan. 13, 2021. And it was
just getting started. Well, it started in October, but you know what happened
in February.



This is how droughts work, though. Right? It's not just a lack of rain, it's a
lack of ANY precipitation. Oh yeah, I saved the worst for last. This week's
drought picture.



Drought and La Nina 101.

Gary McManus
State Climatologist
Oklahoma Mesonet
Oklahoma Climatological Survey
gmcmanus@mesonet.org