ARCT-OCALYPSE! – Page 2 – Weather & Climate – PalmsNorth.com

TerdalFarm · 2011-01-05T23:01:07Z

OK, I decided to introduce a little more humour on this forum. Below is a copy-and-paste of the latest of the regular emails I subscribe to from my state climatologist. He tries to keep us reading by making bad jokes. Feel to skip unless you are way into OK weather. I'll summarize. We have had an unusually mild winter so far. I think my lowest has been 14 oF, and each day it has gotten above freezing. We are finally going to get a little taste of "winter" as you folks know it next week. I'm sure I'll be whining about "global cooling" a week from now. For perspective, the state climatologist compares what is coming to what we had in January of last year. For example, the first link he gives (right here if you don't want to read down)shows that in early January 2010, Bixby had 88 hours continually with temps below 20 oF, and an overall low of 2 oF. (Recall I was conveniently in Belize then :D :D)For those interested in Sabal minor "McCurtain", you can refer to the lower right corner where the Idabel airport reported 45 hours continuously below 20 oF and a lowest of 11 oF. The videos I have linked to previously show that the wild plants recovered, flowered and set seed in 2010. Now, even my Canadian friends agree this was chilly weather, but still USDA zone 7 for me and Zone 8 for the wild Sabal minor, right? As for the expected ARCT-OCALYPSE! this coming week, I think we'll have several days continually below freezing, but the forecasts I see call for us getting a bit above 20 oF every day and lows still in the Zone 7b range. If I gardened in England that might cause panic, but I don't see a problem. I'll re-check and touch-up palm protection on Saturday, but I think I have been ready for weather like this since early December. If you have any suggestions you have been holding back on, please give them now and I'll fix things this weekend. --ErikMESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ...January 5, 2011 January 5, 2011 January 5, 2011 January 5, 2011The OCS/Mesonet Ticker: Fair to mostly punny.ARCT-OCALYPSE!No word yet to determine if next week's deep freeze is a true bread-and-milkemergency, but I'm headed to Braum's tonight just in case. You can never havetoo much ice cream at times like this. With talk of the coldest weather to hitthese parts in quite some time, I thought I'd try and remember the last time,in these parts, it got quite that cold.Ah yes, 365 days ago! As some of you remember, it was downright chilly the firstweek of January 2010. You can see the damage done by looking at this map ofhours below 20 degrees from the January 5-11 last year (including lowesttemperature reached, -6 degrees at Vinita and Goodwell), courtesy of theOklahoma Mesonetare vast differences to go along with the similarities to last year'sbrush with the North Pole versus this year.Similarities:1) The Arctic Oscillation (AO) index was decidedly negative for a decisivelylong time, giving the eastern half of the U.S. a bone-chilling early winter.2009-10 --that's all I can think of, other than something about Lindsay Lohan beingin either jail or rehab. Either is a safe pick probably.Differences:1) El Nino vs. La Nina - Last year we had a strong El Nino combine with theAO to give us plenty of wintry weather prior to January. Does the ChristmasEve blizzard ring a bell? This year Oklahoma and the Southern Plains have beenunder the spell of La Nina and its broad dry pattern.drought monitor, early January2010:http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20110105/ok_dm.pngpercent of normal rainfall2009:http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20110105/oct-dec2010_pct.png2) Preceding warmth: October-December 2009 was the 12th coolest statewideand 2.4 degrees below normal while October-December 2010 was the 44th warmest,0.8 degrees above normal.My point? Well, that's your first mistake in reading this far and thinking Ihad one.In all seriousness, however, the point is that this cold air outbreak is goingto come as much more of a shock this go around. People, pets, livestock ... allare going to be particularly vulnerable since our winter has been so mild thusfar with little acclimation to true arctic air.To further complicate matters for agricultural producers, the wheat crop hasbecome stressed by droughy conditions in some areas and will not like thefrigid temperatures one bit. A good blanket of snow would be a nice gift tohelp insulate those sub-layers of soil from the really chilly air above thesurface.At any rate, the iceman cometh! Crank up your heat, buy plenty of ice cream andact like it's July.(liability clause forced by the Ticker's lawyers: eat the ice cream indoors)Gary McManusAssociate State ClimatologistOklahoma Climatological Survey(405) 325-2253gmcmanus@mesonet.orgJanuary 5 in Oklahoma History: Record Maximum 85 F at HAMMON 3 SSW (1927) Record Minimum -16 F at GUTHRIE (1947), HULAH DAM (1947), REYDON (1942) Record Precip 4.70" at HOLLOW (1946) +Record Snowfall 8.20" at WAYNOKA (1962)(Oklahoma History=sinc...

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TerdalFarm

(@terdalfarm)

Posts: 2981

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Wow!
Bet you wish you still lived in OK, huh?
It will be cold down here, but definitely "zone 7" stuff.
--Erik
P.S. Jim, W flirts with Don on FB, too. Mike, don't get jealous.

Posted : 09/01/2011 1:25 pm

sidpook

(@sidpook)

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W would love to see you model the 2011 attire on that graph 😆

LOL, gladly!

Mike Trautner

Posted : 09/01/2011 1:29 pm

DesertZone

(@desertzone)

Posts: 4411

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Whatever happened to Global Warming! LOL...Just joking

That is awesome! 😆 😆 😆

Shoshone Idaho weather
<img src="http://weathersticker.wunderground.com/weathersticker/miniWeather06_both/language/www/US/ID/Gooding.gif" alt="Click for Pearce, Arizona Forecast" border="0" height="50" width="150" /></a>
Here's to all the global warming pushers, may your winters be -30 below and four feet of snow in your driveway. Because I want you happy.
-Aaron-

Posted : 09/01/2011 3:28 pm

TerdalFarm

(@terdalfarm)

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First snow of the winter just started falling, so it is the long johns for me.

Posted : 09/01/2011 3:32 pm