Ticker for April 20, 2022

                
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April 20, 2022     April 20, 2022     April 20, 2022     April 20, 2022


Who touched this?!?




Somewhere across the western half of the state today, some kid is going to come
home from school and crank that AC down because of the heat, and that kid is going
to feel THE WRATH OF DAD. He's out there...the Dad that has the rule no AC until
school is out for the summer. He also lurks silently in the fall, guarding that
thermostat in case of an unauthorized switch from "off" to "heat."

"WE DON'T TURN THE HEAT ON UNTIL IT SNOWS FOR THE FIRST TIME!"

Protests are met with "go put on a hoodie and grab a blanket."

That's not our problem today. Dad will say "open a window!" or "go put some shorts
and a tank top on!"

That really won't help much, because today is going to be summer-like across the
western half of the state. Highs will approach record levels, and maybe break the
all-time highest reading for this date in history.



This is after some near-record breaking high minimum temps.





Here are some notable temperature stats historically for today. Or today for
history. Or notably historical todayically.

Highest minimum temperature ever on this date? 78 degrees at Freedom back in
1964. Not even close to that today...63 is our highest Tmin.



(If you were alive to experience that low temperature back in 1964, you are
probably guarding the thermostat today).

Now high temperatures are a different story, with 100 degrees being the top
mark ever on this date, for any location, in history. That came at Eldorado
back in 1904 (no idea if John Wayne and Robert Mitchum were there), and Okeene
in 1925.





The highest forecast Tmax for today is 98 degrees down in Tillman County, but
don't be shocked if somebody bumps up to triple digits this afternoon. Just
remember when somebody is baking in near-record temperatures in SW OK, folks up
in the NE are going to struggle to reach 70. We're nowhere close to the lowest
maximum temperature records in that part of the state, however.



We get to flirt with summer for another couple of days before that big upper
level low pressure system moves over and past, dragging a cold front and
hopefully a bunch of rain through our area.











Those same dad that won't turn the AC on have their sprinklers on.

Because the lawn, you know.

I may resemble all these remarks above, by the way.

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