News - Blogs - All the seasons in one week plus incredible tornado footage

All the seasons in one week, plus incredible tornado footage
Published: 1/30/2013 3:17 PM
Last Modified: 1/30/2013 3:21 PM

Residents search through debris after a storm ripped through Coble, Tenn. early Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2013. A large storm system packing high winds, hail and at least one tornado tore across a wide swath of the South and Midwest on Wednesday, killing one person, blacking out power to thousands and damaging homes. (AP Photo/Butch Dill)

Sunday morning, I woke up to snow falling on the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. Twelve hours later, I was back in Tulsa, where it was in the 60s and humid.

Then it got to 75 degrees Monday. It made me miss the snow.

I love a warm , beautiful day, but I like my seasons. Just not all in one week.

The temperature Monday was 29 degrees above normal in Tulsa. As of Tuesday, January is 3.2 degrees above normal.

It’s a continuation of Tulsa’s abnormally warm months, which is further exacerbating our abnormally dry months and sending us further into drought.

Even the 0.91 inches of rain we had Tuesday in Tulsa won’t make much of a difference in the long run, as the next seven days are dry and warmer.

BUT, we had nearly an inch of rain Tuesday. That’s fantastic right now.

The storm system that came through Tuesday brought much-needed moisture to the area. The winner was Newkirk with 2.67 inches. The loser was – again – The Panhandle. Boise City has gone 108 days without .25 inches of rain or more.

While we haven’t had any measurable snow this year, we have had a tornado. An EF-2 tornado formed about 2:55 p.m. Tuesday about 13 miles northeast of Muldrow in Sequoyah County and traveled about 7 miles before it ended 3 miles north of Natural Dam, Ark., in Crawford County. The tornado had a width of about 480 meters.

There were no injuries with the tornado. Further damage surveys were scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.

The tornado and storms Tuesday were part of a larger storm system that continues to sweep across the country, spawning more tornadoes today. Nine were reported Tuesday and there have been five so far in preliminary reports Wednesday, including this one in Adairsville, Ga.

At least one person was killed by this tornado. Another person was killed in Tennessee. Eight injuries were reported from a tornado in Calhoun, Ga., according to preliminary reports.

The fatalities ended the longest streak of non-fatal tornadoes in the more than 60-year history of detailed records. The last person to die in a tornado was on June 24, 220 days ago as of Tuesday.

January tornadoes in Oklahoma aren’t unheard of, but they are rare. Since 1950, there have been 17, including the tornado Tuesday in Sequoyah County. Significantly less than the most active month: May with 1,347 since 1950.

Back to our winter that wasn’t, Tulsa has only recorded a trace of snow this season. The last winter with only a trace of snow was 1911.

In our Weather World Snow Contest, everyone is losing. But, Jenks Middle School student Katelyn is losing the least with her guess of 0.7 inches of snow this season.

A snowless winter this late in the season doesn’t mean much, however. Our snowiest winter, the 2011 blizzard, had 3.6 inches of snow through January until we had 22.5 inches in February. Our second snowiest season, 1924, had only 5.9 inches through January until 19.7 inches in March.

So, no one is out of the game yet. Well, Briel may be. She guessed 28 inches. That’s a lot of catching up to do. Though, now that I’ve said that, prepare for BLIZZARD 2013.

-- Jerry Wofford

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Almanac

Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun
Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec

	Temperature		Precipitation
Date	High Temp	Low Temp	Total	Month to date	Historical average
1	44°	16°	0	0.00	0.05
2	59°	24°	0	0.00	0.11
3	57°	33°	0	0.00	0.16
4	68°	37°	Trace	0.00	0.21
5	69°	29°	0	0.00	0.26
6	66°	33°	0	0.00	0.32
7	59°	38°	0.05	0.05	0.38
8	51°	34°	0	0.05	0.44
9	44°	36°	0.01	0.06	0.51
10	62°	37°	0.07	0.13	0.57
11	54°	28°	0	0.13	0.64
12	44°	30°	0.25	0.38	0.70
13	55°	40°	0.01	0.39	0.76
14	°	°			0.83
15	°	°			0.89
16	°	°			0.95
17	°	°			1.02
18	°	°			1.09
19	°	°			1.16
20	°	°			1.23
21	°	°			1.31
22	°	°			1.38
23	°	°			1.46
24	°	°			1.53
25	°	°			1.61
26	°	°			1.69
27	°	°			1.77
28	°	°			1.85

TEMPERATURE

RAINFALL

SNOWFALL

Weather World

Follow Jerry Wofford on Twitter for updates during severe weather conditions.

Tulsa weather milestones of 2013 (as of Feb. 12)

Highest temperature: 70 on Jan. 11 (Record: 115 on Aug. 15, 1936)
Lowest temperature: 15 on Jan. 16 (Record: Minus-16 on Jan. 22, 1930)
Hottest month (average): 40.5 degrees in January (Record: 91.7 degrees on July 1980)
Coldest month (average): 40. 5 degrees in January (Record: 21.7 in January 1918)
Most snowfall (day): 0.1 of an inch on Feb. 12(Record: 13.2 inches on Feb. 1, 2011)
Most snowfall (month): 0.1 of an inch in February(Record: 22.5 inches in February 2011)
Most rainfall (day): 0.91 of an inch on Jan. 29 (Record: 9.27 inches on May 26-27, 1984)
Most rainfall (month): 1.54 of an inch in January (Record: 18.18 inches on September 1971)
Highest wind speed: 30 mph on Jan. 30
Previous day with any rain: Feb. 12
Previous day with 1 inch or more of rain: Oct. 17, 2012
Previous day with any snow: Feb. 12
Previous day with freezing temperatures: Feb. 12
Read regular updates on Oklahoma's unpredictable weather and learn more about meteorology from the Tulsa office of the National Weather Service.

>> Visit the main weather page
>> Send us your weather photos
>> Meet the forecasters

Contributors
Staff Writer Althea Peterson started writing for the Tulsa World in March 2007 after previous stops at the Norman Transcript in 2006 and the Oklahoma Gazette in 2005. She followed her older brother from rural Wisconsin (with a public school that never seemed to call snow days) to the University of Oklahoma, but did not follow his pursuit to study meteorology. However, she tries to find as many opportunities to report on the weather as possible.

Staff Writer Jerry Wofford came to the Tulsa World in 2010 from The Manhattan Mercury in Manhattan, Kan. Originally from western Arkansas and a graduate of the University of Oklahoma, Jerry has lived in Tornado Alley his entire life and is one of those people who goes outside when the sirens go off.

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