Ticker for April 6, 2022

                
MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ...
April 6, 2022      April 6, 2022      April 6, 2022      April 6, 2022


The roof the roof




Who enjoyed the wind last night? Sometimes the joy is in overdoing it, no? Who
else still hears the near-constant roar of 60-70 mph winds the cold (cool?) front
brought us last night? After a long day of dealing with drought matters, it was
sure nice to sit on the couch for a relaxing hurricane. But I sarcastically
digress...





Tipton wins the prize with THREE wind gusts of 74 mph, and another FOUR of 70-
71 mph. All of this between 11-12 last night. That really is darned near a
hurricane. Check out the wind portion of their meteogram last night. Dang, I
hope it wasn't trash last night in Tipton!



The drier air and the strong winds that front left behind are setting the scene
for a possible wildfire outbreak of significant proportions today across Oklahoma,
especially in the far NW section of the state and eastern Panhandle where fire
conditions are considered "extremely critical" by the SPC wildfire forecasts.

Extremely critical?

Is there any other kind?

I said "extremely critical," you said "is there any other kind?" I can have the
Ticker reporter read it back to you...

All this led Mother Nature admitting she ordered the Code Red today, as in Red
Flag Fire Warning for much of the state.



And this is pretty much the regime we're going to be in for the next few days,
and possibly the next week across western Oklahoma.







I wish there was better news, but the next chance of rain we will see comes
early next week when a broad upper-level low pressure system moves into the
West and gives us a chance of storms. There is the possibility of a pretty
decent severe weather setup for early next week, but that's still a bit iffy.
You can definitely see that trough showing up on the 6-10 day temperature
outlook.



So with that kind of temperature gradient, you can imagine good southwesterly
flow aloft, some decent southerly winds at the lower levels returning some
moisture from the Gulf (hopefully). But we also know that will probably mean
a dryline across western OK with strong southwesterly winds and bigtime
summer warmth and dryness (i.e., more fire danger).

We have enough to worry about today, however. We can worry about possibly
fictional severe weather when it draws nearer. However, never too early to
plan for that severe weather threat, because it's coming eventually! For today,
here are some wildfire tips (and we all know just how painful wildfire tips
can be).





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