General Weather Discussion - March 2015

[yukong]

Even though the metro is clearly in a dry slot or pocket on radar...we are still getting light sleet in the NW metro. It's very fine...but it is sleet as it bouces on my hood as it hits.

[venture]

Another radar update...

The dry slot starting to give way to a new area of precip that is developing from Tuttle back towards Anadarko and Apache. The area is increasing some of the last 10-15 minutes. Also see more snow reports come i now around the northwest Metro area and up to Guthrie.

[FritterGirl]

At this point, it looks like a bust for OKC proper. Nothing at all in downtown thus far (a bit of spitty rain and wind). My husband on NW Expressway reports same.

[Anonymous.]

This dry slot better get out of here, because social media is about to burn down every OKC and Tulsa met's home! lol

[sacolton]

For the sake of the weathermen (and women) ... something better happen soon since just about everyone CLOSED for a hyped-up winter storm. Cry wolf too many times, ya know.

[okatty]

It seems like we get a new weather phrase every year - this year's is "dry slot". Im sure it has been around but it's the one i claim to have added to my vocab this year!

[bandnerd]

For the sake of the weathermen (and women) ... something better happen soon since just about everyone CLOSED for a hyped-up winter storm. Cry wolf too many times, ya know.

Well, I will say that my school stayed open the last two times we got hit by a mid-day snow event. Driving home both times was a nightmare (though last Monday was definitely worse) and so many kids were checked out by noon-2pm, having class was pointless. With only 3-4 kids in a class, there was no instruction happening that day. They told us this was going to happen earlier in the day and impact us while we were in working/school hours, so I can see where administrators would get anxious about having kids and teachers get stuck at school in an ice event. It's a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation.

I will say it's hilarious looking at my students posting on Twitter about how we shouldn't have taken a snow day. But if they were there and two sleet pellets fell to the ground, they would all be whining to go home. Again, damned do/damned don't.

We were supposed to have band contest today. I was upset at first, but looking at our alt dates next week, with mid 60s and sunny skies, somehow I think I'll manage.

[stratosphere]

For the sake of the weathermen (and women) ... something better happen soon since just about everyone CLOSED for a hyped-up winter storm. Cry wolf too many times, ya know.

This dry slot better get out of here, because social media is about to burn down every OKC and Tulsa met's home! lol

as much as i hate snow and am ready for warmer weather and spring, i did stay home from work today because of the general agreement among channel 4, 5, & 9. At this point i need some snow to help justify my decision in my own mind. Monday of last week it took over an hour to get home from work and i left plenty early. Not necessarily because the roads were bad, which they were kind of, but the fact that so many idiots cannot drive on this stuff. On one hand there is the guy in a front wheel drive car driving 10 miles per hour, the other extreme is the idiot in the 4x2 pickup truck who still thinks he can drive 60 mph. Saw a lot of scary stuff to say the least. Go ahead and snow! And i hope to God its the last time this season!!

[venture]

Dry slot choked off the band I was mentioning in my last post. NWS Norman keeps updating their forecast...and increasing snowfall amounts.

[Anonymous.]

New WRF that is out paints locations with over 6 inches in the SW part of the state (where it has been dryslotted all day).

Perhaps schools could have been in session today, as it looks like the main show will start later this afternoon into this evening. But not a single model predicted the storm to move this slowly and a dry slot to be filtered along the entire I-44 corridor.

Abilene's radar being down does not help with this storm, it is difficult to see how well precip is developing ahead of the main low.


This is not over yet, folks.

[Roger S]

HAHA.... We had one employee that called in this morning and said it was already icy and treacherous at his home in Yukon at 7:30 this morning so he wouldn't be coming to work....... Oops!

[mblackwell]

haha.... We had one employee that called in this morning and said it was already icy and treacherous at his home in yukon at 7:30 this morning so he wouldn't be coming to work....... Oops!

busted!

[mblackwell]

There are crazy people out there who hear what they want to hear and will complain about anything at the drop of a hat, but it seems like at least some of the backlash could be mitigated if local mets did a better job of communicating the possibility that conditions could occur where a storm is either delayed or never occurs at all.

[venture]

So the update from NWS about 15 minutes ago is that they expect the dry slot to fill in between 3 and 4 as more moisture moves in.

[venture]

You would think it was a severe weather day in May.

[Anonymous.]

You would think it was a severe weather day in May.

Haha, or what they think is a busted forecast.

[venture]

Image from the Frederick radar to give a look at the area where our precip will come from. You can see the one band/area of of precip filling in and moving NE from around the Norman area where we now have snow falling back to the south along/east of I-44 until the TX line. Then you see some heavier echoes showing up from Wichita Falls back through Seymour TX. Then you have our dryslot in the middle which is starting to get pinched off on the southern end finally. Light to moderate snow band is moving east slowly just west of the dry slot. So we definitely aren't done, we just need for this precip to actual overcome the dryslot and then we are in business.

[venture]

NWS Norman apparently can't make up their mind. Removed the 3+ area over the South Metro.

[Ginkasa]

There are crazy people out there who hear what they want to hear and will complain about anything at the drop of a hat, but it seems like at least some of the backlash could be mitigated if local mets did a better job of communicating the possibility that conditions could occur where a storm is either delayed or never occurs at all.

I think the issue is people don't want to hear that. They want a concrete schedule of what the weather will be like and aren't too interested in hearing about all the different factors that weigh in on a forecast and can change it hour by hour. I think a TV met who constantly flip flops as the models change would be received worse than a met who picks a forecast and is only occasionally off the mark a bit. Even here we have people who keep trying to get the info they're given pared down to "it will rain exactly this much at this time at this specific location" when, of course, it just doesn't work like that.

[Anonymous.]

It's going to be funny when everyone in the dryslot today ends up with the highest snowfall totals.

[Ginkasa]

ignorethissorrynevermind

[BB37]

You would think it was a severe weather day in May.

Naah, very few get upset when a severe WX forecast goes south. With snow, I think it goes back to when we were all kids hoping for snow.

[Anonymous.]

Which is why people should just come to this thread.

We don't have viewers to please and ratings to sustain. We don't have a 10-day with cloud and sun graphics. We don't have vague percentages and a 'bus stop forecast'. I love this thread because it is about the models and science involved in forecasting. We are able to post constantly in a time of ever changing conditions. We don't have set schedules to deliver the weather forecast.

We are simply here reporting on the data we see coming in and add our own analysis that is often based upon experience.

We definitely know by now, you can't get them all right - but when you do, the bust-pitchforkers sure get quiet

[mblackwell]

which is why people should just come to this thread.

We don't have viewers to please and ratings to sustain. We don't have a 10-day with cloud and sun graphics. We don't have vague percentages and a 'bus stop forecast'. I love this thread because it is about the models and science involved in forecasting. We are able to post constantly in a time of ever changing conditions. We don't have set schedules to deliver the weather forecast.

We are simply here reporting on the data we see coming in and add our own analysis that is often based upon experience.

We definitely know by now, you can't get them all right - but when you do, the bust-pitchforkers sure get quiet

boom!

[John1744]

Oklahoma being in the position it's in geographically makes things significantly harder to predict for does it not? So many more factors affecting our state from what I understand.