Ticker for June 19, 2024

                
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Waterpalooza!




The Ticker is officially off today (and unofficially off EVERY day...I mean,
something's not right there...right?), but we just had to Tock about that
ridiculous rain in the Panhandle. And as we're typing, remember...heck, it's
still raining up there right now, for crying out loud!



I'll keep this short, since I have my music to work on...current selection:
"Strawberry Pop-Tart Fields ForNEVER."

So you see that 7.52" of rain in Goodwell? That fell since 10:50 p.m. last night,
so just around 8 hours. In actuality, most of it fell between 10:50 p.m. and 6
a.m., but it won't change the return interval much. The average 1000-year
recurrence interval (an average precipitation recurrence interval of 1000 years
means that a rainfall event of a certain magnitude is expected to occur, on
average, once every 1000 years) in Goodwell, OK, over 6 hours is 6.78", and the
12-hour 1000-year rain is 7.54 inches. The 8-hour 1000-year rainfall amount is
approximately 7.2".



Remember, it's still raining and Goodwell is up to 7.52 inches of rain as
of 7:41 a.m., since 10:50 p.m. last night. So now we're up to the 12-hour 1000-
year rain as well. Goodwell's highest daily rainfall total on record is 5.38"
from June 8, 1942, so that's also blown completely out of the water...pardon the
pun. We're dealing with NWS COOP data here, so it gets a bit fuzzy between
daily vs. 24-hour records, since they don't measure hourly data, but it still
applies here. There all-time daily record rainfall total is absolutely shattered.
Shoot, Goodwell's normal YEARLY total is 16.7", for crying out loud! For crying
out loud, part 2...Goodwell's total of 7.52 inches of rain in 8 hours would
already rank as the 4th-wettest MONTH on record for Goodwell (July 1950's 9.21"
is in top spot), and those records go back to 1910!

Hooker's rain isn't quite as much, but equally ridiculous. It started raining
9:20 p.m. last night in Hooker, and by midnight 5.35" had fallen. Hooker's
daily rainfall record alone is 5" even from Aug. 24, 1972, so they blew that
out of the water in just 2 hours and 40 minutes. So 5.35" of rain in just under
3 hours for that location is right around the 3-hour 500-year return interval
total of 5.59". They're up to 6.94" in just about 10 hours now, still right
around the 500-year interval total.



Then we have Beaver's 5.63" in just about 9 hours, which is a bit closer to
their 100-year rainfall. Remember, as you go east, those return interval rains
go up along with climatology (i.e., it rains more as you go east in Oklahoma,
for the most part).



Nevertheless, their previous daily record of 5.07" from June 10, 1983, has also
been shattered.

Well there you go. Just a bit of historical Panhandle rainfall data for some
historical rains that are STILL falling. So some of these numbers I've talked
about have already changed on the map as I was typing.

This is why we can't have nice things.

Gary McManus
State Climatologist
Oklahoma Mesonet
Oklahoma Climatological Survey
gmcmanus@ou.edu