Ticker for May 23, 2022

                
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Great balls of lightning




As a young man, the first thing I remember about going to see "Top Gun" is that I
had the same haircut as Tom Cruise. Now, I have the same haircut as Goose. TOM
CRUISE has the same haircut as Tom Cruise, of course. That's fine, that's why
one of us is a world famous forever-young handsome fellow known for entertaining
the masses, and the other is Tom Cruise. Hey, a guy can dream, right? And write?
Here's the deal, though. It's raining right now!



Keep in mind that radar is "now," so when you read it later it will already by
"then." In fact, even as I type it, it is now "then," but it will never again be
"now." What? I don't know either...all I know is that it's raining at my house and
between now and tomorrow just about everybody can expect some rain at their house
as well. Yes, even Kenton and Goodwell where they just need a measly quarter-inch
today to reset this map.



We might have the need for some flash flood or areal flood watches later on,
but hopefully we can get some nice slow soaking rains and avoid that. But, it
does come with the territory.

By the way, speaking of Ice Man (I was going to but it didn't fit with the
meme...sorry Val Kilmer), did you know Oklahoma had a freeze yesterday morning?
Right, as I predicted (guessed?), our old friend Eva out in NW Texas County
in the Panhandle dipped down to 32 degrees yesterday morning for the presumptive
last freeze of the season.



Hopefully freezing (get it?) this map until our next freeze on either July 22
or December 18. Hey, it is Oklahoma, after all. But we came close on May 22 to
out latest freeze ever in Oklahoma, the 30 degrees at Kenton on My 29, 1947.



It feels like it has been below freezing to me the last couple of days with
our foray back to the 60s. It will warm up just a bit the next couple of days
through the rain, but we get a real return to summer here in the latter parts
of the week. Then we start to see the real heat return as we get later into
next week to end June.





Another forecast for this week...on Thursday, I will be feeling the need, the
need for popcorn!

Gary McManus
State Climatologist
Oklahoma Mesonet