Ticker for March 21, 2022

                
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The heavy stuff




Gunga galunga … gunga, gunga lagunga. I *THINK* that's gibberish (longtime Ticker
readers will understand I'm something of an expert), but for today we'll consider
it to mean "at the end of tomorrow, we'll have much less drought." So we have
that going for us. Not sure if that's how it will end up. Looks to me like some
folks are going to get a lot of rain, and maybe some not quite enough. I'm hoping
more for the former than the latter--but I do worry about SW OK getting in the
dreaded dry slot. There may be some flooding, especially across eastern OK, but
this isn't a toad-strangler as much as it is a "let's get some decent early
spring rainfall amounts so we can add heat (that's coming) and start to green
this sucker up and kill some wildfire danger."

There will be a bit of severe weather possible, especially down in southern
sections of the state, but the really bad stuff will be contained in Texas.

(insert Texas jokes here)









So not so bad for us up this way. The tornado risk down south is very low (but
not zero), so proper weather awareness is warranted today.

The storm system will draw more cold air down later today and that could give
NW OK another dose of the white stuff...and we ain't talking rice.





So a winter weather advisory for the Panhandle, but nothing too bad for those
folks. Wouldn't shock me to see that extended just a bit to the east, but it
won't stick around for long. We will take a step back in temperatures to more
winter-like conditions, but then we'll bounce back by the end of the week to
more spring'ish temperatures.



Hey, 40s and 50s for a couple of days isn't bad for March. I don't think we're
done with freezes just yet, either. But we do need these bursts of moisture
to green us up. The horrendous wildfires yesterday could get much worse if we
stick with dormant vegetation for too much longer. This statewide burst of
moisture should be a good start.

So we have that going for us.

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