Oklahoma Weather Discussion - January 2013

[Uncle Slayton]

Two more years til retirement and I swear to god, I'm moving to Minot ND. As someone pointed out upthread, no tornadoes, no snow, ice, etc...very disappointing .

[Plutonic Panda]

Hmmm Apparently OKC doesn't rank in the top five coldest cities in the US. I never knew.

Oklahoma City too warm to rank among America's coldest cities | NewsOK.com

[ou48A]

The 3 month forecast. I hope this is wrong.
VIDEO: Forecast for the Next 3 Months

[adaniel]

Hmmm Apparently OKC doesn't rank in the top five coldest cities in the US. I never knew.

Oklahoma City too warm to rank among America's coldest cities | NewsOK.com

Who authorized this breathtaking piece of hard hitting journalism? I had no idea Barrow, Alaska and International Falls, Minnesota were colder than OKC.

[ShiroiHikari]

Maybe I should make like my father and move to fricking Arizona. At least it's SUPPOSED to be hot and bone-dry there.

[venture]

Maybe I should make like my father and move to fricking Arizona. At least it's SUPPOSED to be hot and bone-dry there.

Only a matter of time until we start seeing sand dunes start popping up in more places around here.

[Plutonic Panda]

Who authorized this breathtaking piece of hard hitting journalism? I had no idea Barrow, Alaska and International Falls, Minnesota were colder than OKC.

I know right. Hmmmm. I guess I had everything confused. Next you know I'm going to find out that Anchorage receives more snow a year than we do or that on average the Sahara desert is hotter than Oklahoma.

[BG918]

The GFS is showing a weather pattern shift with storms moving from the Rockies into Oklahoma around the 28th and again around the 31st. So some good news potentially on the horizon.

[Bunty]

Meanwhile, Thursday afternoon,1/24, will be 30 to 35 degrees cooler than this afternoon and cloudy with a slight chance of rain or drizzle..

[OKCisOK4me]

and, meanwhile, next Monday will be back up to 73 degrees. Gotta love this weather...sucks for spring and summer though cause I hate mosquitoes!

[venture]

So looking at the morning model runs, the drought will continue. Shocker I know! One thing to keep in mind is that once a drought has been established as long as it has here, it is nearly impossible to break with out some major game changer (i.e. tropical storm).

Precip Chances...
Sunday Jan 27 - Mainly far NE OK, some drizzle I-35 and east.
Tuesday Jan 29 - SE OK
Saturday Feb 2 - Extreme SE OK
Tuesday Feb 5 - Drizzle I-35 and east, maybe heavier over SE OK

Temps will continue to be on a roller coaster. Some days in the 30s and 40s, some in the 60s and 70s, and back again. Most of the arctic air (teens or colder) looks like it won't ever make it south of Nebraska.

[Anonymous.]

Yup. If you notice this and last year all the major weather events have been further east. Arkansas especially has seen way more action the last few years than OK.

A drought compounds on itself and each of these systems coming out of the west have little to no moisture to work with until they get into the eastern part of the state and ride through the Mississippi Valley.


We need another tropical storm Erin:

[OKCisOK4me]

Is that a giant ham bone over Kentucky?!? Man, reminds me of a childhood book, 'Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs'. The illustrations always made me hungry! Haven't seen the movie and don't care to...

[NoOkie]

Is that a giant ham bone over Kentucky?!? Man, reminds me of a childhood book, 'Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs'. The illustrations always made me hungry! Haven't seen the movie and don't care to...

The kids wanted to go see it, so we did. I was really surprised at how good the movie is. Not a straight adaptation of the book, but charming and funny.

Anyway, back on topic. When do the dust storms start?

[Roger S]

Anyway, back on topic. When do the dust storms start?

Farming practices have improved since the Dust Bowl era. I don't expect we'll be seeing any dust storms of that eras magnitude.

[ou48A]

Farming practices have improved since the Dust Bowl era. I don't expect we'll be seeing any dust storms of that eras magnitude.

While farming practices have improved…..
That doesn’t mean that significant dirt storms cannot still occur…. They in fact still do. I have lived though a few.
Without rain dirt / sand in our air will be a problem in much of Oklahoma.

[Roger S]

That doesn’t mean that significant dirt storms cannot still occur…. They in fact still do. I have lived though a few.

Of the magnitude that took place during the Dust Bowl?

[OKCisOK4me]

Of the magnitude that took place during the Dust Bowl?

There was a dust storm a few weeks or a month ago around Lubbock that was pretty insane. It had, for the most part, dissipated by the time it reached Central Oklahoma but it was a beast for sure.

Here's a nice one in West Texas from November 2011:

Bird's eye view of West Texas dust storm

[venture]

There was a dust storm a few weeks or a month ago around Lubbock that was pretty insane. It had, for the most part, dissipated by the time it reached Central Oklahoma but it was a beast for sure.

Here's a nice one in West Texas from November 2011:

Bird's eye view of West Texas dust storm

It should be noted how many times our skies have been hazy or even obstructed by dust from Texas or Kansas. Once the wind picks it up it doesn't settle very easily. It will be a gradual evolution as we continue to dry out even further. Now it can all change, but its pretty hard to reverse a drought in our part of the country. If we were in the Midwest or Great Lakes, its not as challenging.

[OKCisOK4me]

Wouldn't all of this be due to the jet stream?

Why has the jet stream changed?

Is it due to human involvement?

I mean, I'm not a big believer of the whole Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore film but why has it been dry so frequently for the last few years?? Is it a natural cycle and we're just putting a greater dent in it by more humans being present or what?

[Roger S]

Wouldn't all of this be due to the jet stream?

Why has the jet stream changed?

I lay the blame on the Devon Tower for altering the Jet Stream.

[ou48A]

Of the magnitude that took place during the Dust Bowl?

I have experienced dust storms in the heart of the old dust bowl that old times said were just as bad, save one or 2 storms….the difference is the frequency and irrigation.

Yes, significant dust storms still occur on the high plains that still cause very serious problems for some folks...
This just isn’t getting very much news media coverage, yet.
This will be increasingly impact the OKC area, if these areas don’t get good moisture soon.

[venture]

Wouldn't all of this be due to the jet stream?

Why has the jet stream changed?

Is it due to human involvement?

I mean, I'm not a big believer of the whole Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore film but why has it been dry so frequently for the last few years?? Is it a natural cycle and we're just putting a greater dent in it by more humans being present or what?

I personal don't believe we have enough historical data to concretely say we have had an impact. However, we can look at the growth of the human population and really any CO2 producer and the decline in CO2 consuming organisms and eventually there is going to be a trade off. CO2 is a green house gas and the more of it around, the warmer things will get. So the less plant life around to eat up the CO2 the worse off things will get.

I have my faith in nature though that it will do what it always does...balance things back out. Might not be good for us, but we aren't the only living organism on this grain of sand.

[Uncle Slayton]

I personal don't believe we have enough historical data to concretely say we have had an impact.

I have my faith in nature though that it will do what it always does...balance things back out. Might not be good for us, but we aren't the only living organism on this grain of sand.

Brilliant. Thank you. Somewhere out there, HWTJ's hands started twitching uncontrollably and he's having recurring urges to stop what he's doing and graph something.

[venture]

Brilliant. Thank you. Somewhere out there, HWTJ's hands started twitching uncontrollably and he's having recurring urges to stop what he's doing and graph something.

Well just keep in mind what I'm saying. As all carbon dioxide producing species increase in population, more green house gases are going to be produced. We produce it more than just exhaling. So more of us, more carbon dioxide in the air. Seeing as we each produce about 1000 lbs of CO2 a year just from breathing, increasing the population as fast as we are now is going to catch up with us at some point.