Oklahoma Weather Discussion - February/March 2013

[Mississippi Blues]

Snow day baby!! No fun for the people that have to get out in this, but it's a win for us school children.

[catch22]

Airport was closed earlier due to lightning. Current taxi wait times are 1-2+ hours for deicing.

Some flights almost went 3 hours after pushback before takeoff.

[NoOkie]

Looked at tonight's temperature forecast, and given how much water is on the roads morning commute is going to be a demolition derby.

[kelroy55]

18 pages and we're not even through February.

[bandnerd]

You have to appreciate this state. We've had snow, rain, lightning, thunder, and sleet all in 24 hours. A few days ago it was 70, and it will be in the 20s tonight. Nothing like cramming entire seasons in to the span of just a few days.

[venture]

Some flights almost went 3 hours after pushback before takeoff.

Eeesh. Nothing like riding the line to get fined. I really don't see any reason, especially here, to push while knowing there is a delay for deicing. Just a way to piss passengers off.

[venture]

18 pages and we're not even through February.

It was bound to happen when I decided "oh its been quiet, I'll just bundle two months together on this one." LOL

[catch22]

Eeesh. Nothing like riding the line to get fined. I really don't see any reason, especially here, to push while knowing there is a delay for deicing. Just a way to piss passengers off.

Can't tie up gates all morning long especially when inbound flights start to come in.

[Praedura]

You have to appreciate this state. We've had snow, rain, lightning, thunder, and sleet all in 24 hours. A few days ago it was 70, and it will be in the 20s tonight. Nothing like cramming entire seasons in to the span of just a few days.

[venture]

Can't tie up gates all morning long especially when inbound flights start to come in.

They shouldn't be coming in, in the first place. Why would you put people on an aircraft, push them out of the gate, just to sit on an aircraft for up to 3 hours before they even get to take off. It makes zero sense in the customer experience.

Oh well, that's for the people above our pay grades to worry about and eat the fines. I just hate the image it creates on the ground.

[bandnerd]

Venture -- what are we looking at tomorrow morning with re-freezing, in your expert opinion?

[catch22]

I agree that is is poor customer service, but options are limited in these situations. We are not a large enough station to institute network ground stops. Neither are we able to accurately predict deicing times until we are actually deicing, as each weather event present different challenges and conditions for deicing. An example being, we usually would preclean surfaces before departure in an event like this, start knocking ice off where possible before boarding starts, however the airport shut down from 5am-615am due to lightning proximity, meaning everyone stays inside including deice. At 615am the storms passed and it was throttle to the wall to get back on time and no one ever caught up.

Ice was tightly packed 2-3" inches deep on all surfaces...Just takes a lot longer to de-ice that, and then anti-ice it.

Customers are angry either way.

[PennyQuilts]

I agree that is is poor customer service, but options are limited in these situations. We are not a large enough station to institute network ground stops. Neither are we able to accurately predict deicing times until we are actually deicing, as each weather event present different challenges and conditions for deicing. An example being, we usually would preclean surfaces before departure in an event like this, start knocking ice off where possible before boarding starts, however the airport shut down from 5am-615am due to lightning proximity, meaning everyone stays inside including deice. At 615am the storms passed and it was throttle to the wall to get back on time and no one ever caught up.

Ice was tightly packed 2-3" inches deep on all surfaces...Just takes a lot longer to de-ice that, and then anti-ice it.

Customers are angry either way.

If it makes you feel any better, my husband, after getting woken up at 1:45 and up all night, and after sliding through that storm, then sitting on the 6:30 Delta flight to Atlanta for three hours before finally taking off - all with a wrenched back and a 100 mile drive waiting for him before he could start his work day - and who is yet to get breakfast, or lunch - Isn't remotely angry. He knows the groundcrews are working their butts off and not deliberately trying to screw people over.
Is it any wonder I love that man.

[venture]

I agree that is is poor customer service, but options are limited in these situations. We are not a large enough station to institute network ground stops. Neither are we able to accurately predict deicing times until we are actually deicing, as each weather event present different challenges and conditions for deicing. An example being, we usually would preclean surfaces before departure in an event like this, start knocking ice off where possible before boarding starts, however the airport shut down from 5am-615am due to lightning proximity, meaning everyone stays inside including deice. At 615am the storms passed and it was throttle to the wall to get back on time and no one ever caught up.

Ice was tightly packed 2-3" inches deep on all surfaces...Just takes a lot longer to de-ice that, and then anti-ice it.

Customers are angry either way.

Yeah, which I can understand situations here versus more well prepared stations. I guess looking at the extremes like the 13-hour delay on flight at YYZ or EWR recently was just insane. At that point you cancel the flight or get people off the aircraft. I have a lot of friends that are out there on the ramps every day in the fun stuff blowing green snot all over aircraft, so don't take offense to any of this.

There really isn't much that can be done at the local stations though. It comes back to Ops deciding when to start holding flights back so a station can catch up. From what I could see this morning it looked like most stayed under 3 hours, otherwise it would have been an expensive morning ($27,500 fine per passenger).

[venture]

Venture -- what are we looking at tomorrow morning with re-freezing, in your expert opinion?

I'm guessing there isn't much if any product left on the roads, so any liquid will probably refreeze pretty easy tonight.

[bandnerd]

I'm guessing there isn't much if any product left on the roads, so any liquid will probably refreeze pretty easy tonight.

Just looking outside, my neighborhood streets look nearly dry already, so I figured main roads would be even better. I ventured out for lunch and all was fine except for a little grip problem while coming off a full stop, but that can happen when it's raining in a little car like mine lol. I get bored on snow days, I'd rather be working and get the good day off in April!

[Anonymous.]

Moving on to the next.

Looks like next chance at a weather event is into Monday/Tuesday - right now it looks starved for moisture, but with all the snow melt that will be taking place over the plains this weekend - it may be underplayed.

As of now, it looks to be a [mostly] winter event for OK and much of KS.

[ou48A]

David P. on KWTV CH 9 just indicated that we could have a very significant snow storm on Monday for OKC
He indicated that some of the models were cranking out crazy snow amounts.

[Plutonic Panda]

What is crazy in Oklahoma? 100"+ of snow? lol ;P

[windowphobe]

...significant weather advisory for eastern greer...northwestern kiowa...southwestern wa****a and southeastern beckham counties until 200 am cst...

And a word filter knocks the **** out of a county name. Hilarious.

[OKCDrummer77]

I've seen this on Facebook with 3 or 4 other states. I think almost everyone thinks their state has the weirdest weather.

[venture]

I've seen this on Facebook with 3 or 4 other states. I think almost everyone thinks their state has the weirdest weather.

Yup. No matter where you go people will also say the same thing about their hometown.

"If you don't like the weather, just wait 5 minutes..."

Get's old after awhile. LOL

[Plutonic Panda]

While I agree with that notion, Oklahoma does have extreme weather no doubt. Colorado, Kansas, and Oklahoma have some crazy weather, more so than the majority of the country. I'm sure there are a few more states out there like Oklahoma, but we do have pretty extreme weather sometimes.

[PennyQuilts]

David P. on KWTV CH 9 just indicated that we could have a very significant snow storm on Monday for OKC
He indicated that some of the models were cranking out crazy snow amounts.

Loving the notion of more moisture.

[ou48A]

While I agree with that notion, Oklahoma does have extreme weather no doubt. Colorado, Kansas, and Oklahoma have some crazy weather, more so than the majority of the country. I'm sure there are a few more states out there like Oklahoma, but we do have pretty extreme weather sometimes.

In general the further north you go in the plains states the worse it gets about being extreme with the high plains getting the brunt of some of the worst of the extremes.

OKC weather is comparatively tranquil when compared to the panhandle areas on north. We don’t have the break up seasons that the northern areas have that are such a pain.

In the mid 80’s I drove though Guymon. On the outskirts of town they had a bill board that said welcome to Guymon home of the worlds most lied about weather. A few days later on my trip back though Guymon the sign had been blown over and there was some scattered light damage around town. I always thought that seemed ironic.