February 2022 - General Weather Discussion

[kukblue1]

Slight shift in the track. Sunday evening update looks lik a bit west of I-44 off to the Southeast event.

[Bill Robertson]

Slight shift in the track. Sunday evening update looks lik a bit west of I-44 off to the Southeast event.

I like the last run. But we really need to wait and see what the short range models zero in on Tuesday. Though I hope today's are pretty close.

[BG918]

Very interested to see the models for the winter weather event Wednesday and Thursday. There could be a fine line between who gets rain, ice, sleet and snow. All three are possible across the state.

[Anonymous.]

Tonight (Monday):

Severe storm threat increasing for SE half of the state as we head into this evening. Outside chance that OKC gets clipped by a storm or two, but the main show will be all SE OK.






Winter Precipitation:
Very messy forecast, Wednesday morning there will likely be winter precipitation developing over large area of the state with emphasis on the eastern half. Looks like freezing rain, sleet, and some snow is possible with broad gradient that will run NW to SW over Oklahoma.

At this time it looks like this using I-44 corridor as a general area:
NW - snow
Along - sleet
SE - ice

Looks like at least two waves for C OK, Wednesday morning it begins, then a break before additional development into the evening. Still way too far out for exact amounts and precipitation types, but it looks like east of I-44 will have the highest accumulations of precipitation. NWS will be launching balloons all event to monitor air columns.

Winter storm watches are already up for the Tulsa viewing area and into NWAR.

[Bunty]

A dramatic look at the contrast in temperatures as one of the winter's coldest cold fronts makes its way across Oklahoma during the early morning hours of Feb. 22 from the mid-teens in the panhandle to as much as well into the 60's. At least below zero lows are not expected as was the case in Feb. 2021. It will be interesting to see if these unusually strong cold fronts will continue to blast through later on in March.

[Anonymous.]

Still on track for two main waves of precipitation. OKC looks like mostly sleet event, favoring SE metro for highest accumulations. Will watch the precip and temps as the event unfolds for any new information.

Here is a moisture map from the storm. As you can see the eastern half of the state is really under the gun. I would not be surprised to see localized areas of Ice Storm Warnings issued for select counties and up into northern Arkansas.

[Anonymous.]

HRRR model has been increasing precipitation along I44 corridor. NWS has upgraded to Winter Storm Warnings for basically all of I-44 and SE. Highest impacts will still be SE of OKC, but a narrow band of localized heavy amounts of sleet is possible along I-44.

[Pete]

^

As always, thanks very much.


Has anybody been out on the roads this morning?

[Martin]

i popped into the office earlier to get some things done before the storm. roads were getting pretty slick on the way back... not crazy bad but starting and stopping can be an issue.

[Anonymous.]

My experience with heavy sleet like this is that roads are initially okay. But as the sleet compacts and some UV radiation sneaks in - it melts the accumulated sleet on surfaces. So it pretty much still becomes an ice rink.

Speaking of heavy sleet, thunder sleet is approaching the OKC metro from the SW as I type this 8:30am.

[Anonymous.]

Short-Range models really keeping bulk of development east of I-44 for early Thurs AM.

[MagzOK]

I was enjoying KWTV's live continuous coverage of all the weather yesterday morning and when David Payne was signing off, he was completely drama-filled baiting viewers to stay close as "another powerful 2nd wave" will hit tomorrow (today) morning. This was after the whole time everyone was saying it would be lighter, but he had to get that last major click-bait style drama in going off. It's no wonder grocery stores go bare during these small events with all the drama. Then you have KOCO and KFOR forecasting record breaking snowfalls a week in advance of a storm. Not to mention KOCO's completely misleading "tornado index" slide he shows during severe weather. It's just so chaotic no wonder people around here are afraid of the weather!

Annonymous -- the models thus far are correct with precipitation finally starting to break out in the eastern third of Okla.

[Anonymous.]

Some patchy freezing drizzle and a passing snow shower are going to be the OKC forecast this morning. Lows for Friday morning will be near 10 degrees.




Huge temperature rebound on deck for next week with some 70s even showing their face.

[Boop]

I am going back to work tomorrow so I hope the roads will be okay by then

[Pete]

I had to go out this afternoon and was shocked at how bad the roads still are.

Even main streets like Penn were incredibly slick with people just inching along.

[Boop]

I had to go out this afternoon and was shocked at how bad the roads still are.

Even main streets like Penn were incredibly slick with people just inching along.

They did not salt the roads at all?

[Pete]

They did not salt the roads at all?

Not that I could see. Maybe just the official snow routes.

[BG918]

GFS is hinting at an unsettled weather pattern emerging for the southern Plains the second week of March. Hopefully it pans out to put a dent in the drought.

[king183]

I had to go out this afternoon and was shocked at how bad the roads still are.

Even main streets like Penn were incredibly slick with people just inching along.

I had to take a family member to an appointment at OU Health in the health sciences center and I was shocked that those roads had not been cleared given it is a critical infrastructure location. Very poor management of criticism roads, in my opinion.

[TheTravellers]

OKC has *never* done decently WRT clearing roads of snow, ice, or sleet, not in the 40 years I've been driving here, why would they start now? The "snow routes" are laughable - we live at 36th/May, wife works at the Capitol during session, uses 23rd, and it's a "snow route", yet it's been as rutted, built up, unplowed, uncleared as any other road in the city every time there's a storm. OKC's road-clearing philosophy is "It'll melt".

[Boop]

OKC has *never* done decently WRT clearing roads of snow, ice, or sleet, not in the 40 years I've been driving here, why would they start now? The "snow routes" are laughable - we live at 36th/May, wife works at the Capitol during session, uses 23rd, and it's a "snow route", yet it's been as rutted, built up, unplowed, uncleared as any other road in the city every time there's a storm. OKC's road-clearing philosophy is "It'll melt".

Yeah, it will melt when the sun is out!

[catcherinthewry]

This stuff does not come off with the standard snow plow. I was shoveling my driveway yesterday and that was the hardest winter precipitation I've ever tried to remove.

[Bill Robertson]

This stuff does not come off with the standard snow plow. I was shoveling my driveway yesterday and that was the hardest winter precipitation I've ever tried to remove.

We used the same plows on our tractors that we always use at work this morning. It's slower going and comes up in chunks but plows will remove it.

[SEMIweather]

I saw plows going down NW Expressway a few times yesterday and that road is notably clearer than other roads currently. That being said, we're only a few hours of sunshine and/or above freezing temperatures from all of this melting anyways.

[Celebrator]

They did not salt the roads at all?

KFOR reported the following: “Salt loses its ability to work in temperatures below 15 degrees,” said Raymond Melton, OKC Street Superintendent.
That being said, it looked to me that they had treated the streets, it's just we were hardly above 15 degrees today so perhaps it just wasn't effective with today's conditions.