News - Blogs - Argh that Tulsa wind blows

Argh, that Tulsa wind blows
Published: 1/23/2012 11:24 AM
Last Modified: 1/23/2012 11:24 AM

An Oklahoma Mesonet map of Sunday's (Jan. 22) top wind speeds statewide. Note the highest winds to the west and the lowest winds (but still quite high) to the east.

An Oklahoma Mesonet map of today's (Jan. 23) top wind speeds since midnight, as of 11:10 a.m. today. Note a reversal of yesterday, where the top winds are now mostly to the east.

The weather noise outside that freaked my dogs out last night was not an earthquake or a thunderstorm for once.

According to the Oklahoma Mesonet, winds across the state Sunday reached the red numbers category, as in, 58 mph or higher. The highest winds, 67 mph, were recorded at two Mesonet sites, in Cheyenne (far west-central Oklahoma) and Boise City (western Panhandle).

The closest Mesonet site to Tulsa, in Bixby, recorded 50 mph winds on Sunday. Here's some other area high wind totals from yesterday, according to the Oklahoma Mesonet:

Claremore: 42 mph
Copan: 43 mph
Hectorville: 50 mph
Inola: 43 mph
Jay: 36 mph
Miami: 39 mph
Nowata: 42 mph
Pryor: 40 mph
Skiatook: 41 mph
Vinita: 43 mph

The lowest max wind speed yesterday recorded by the Mesonet was 26 mph in Mount Herman (southeast Oklahoma). Other lower but still high winds were recorded in northeast Oklahoma.

But, much like storms move into new areas as time passes, this morning's highest winds are ... yes, in eastern Oklahoma, with the highest, 38 mph, in Sallisaw and Westville. So far today, Bixby's Mesonet site shows a high speed of 14 mph.

How typical are high winds in Tulsa County? The Oklahoma Climatological Survey's report on our county's climate had this to say:

"Winds across Tulsa County are predominantly from the south to southeast, averaging nearly 7 miles-per-hour."

Karen Hatfield, Tulsa National Weather Service meteorologist, said the NWS does not keep records of wind speed like it does for other weather factors such as rainfall, temperature, snowfall, etc. However, it is part of its daily climate data report. Thus, it's possible to view how windy it was each day. Here's the top five wind speed days for Tulsa in January so far:

Sunday (Jan. 22): 35 mph
Jan. 11: 33 mph
Jan. 15: 31 mph
Jan. 16-17: 30 mph

What does all of this wind mean? It means that warmer days don't feel as warm, unfortunately. The Oklahoma Mesonet offers more details on wind chill here, but in a nutshell: Wind chill is calculated when the temperature is below 50 degrees and winds are greater than 5 mph.

What difference did it make in this morning's lowest temperatures? I have provided a fun gif to show the comparison:

(The lower, "apparent" temperatures are the wind chilled ones)

Mesonet notes, however, wind chill is something that applies only to humans and animals, not road surfaces or pipes.

--Althea Peterson

Reader Comments

Show: Newest First

Learn About Our Comment Policy

To post comments on tulsaworld.com, you must be an active Tulsa World print or digital subscriber and signed into your account.

To sign in to your account, go to tulsaworld.com/signin.
To activate your print subscription for unlimited digital access and to post comments, go to tulsaworld.com/activate.
To purchase a subscription, go to tulsaworld.com/subscribe.

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.

Subscribe to this blog

Temperature
High Temp:	(Example: 45)
Low Temp:	(Example: 45)
Temperature Date:	(Example: 1/1/2011)

Precipitation
Total:	(Example: '.01)
Month to date:	(Example: '.01)
Normal month to date:	(Example: '.01)

2/2013	1/2013	12/2012	11/2012	10/2012	9/2012
8/2012	7/2012	6/2012	5/2012	4/2012	3/2012
2/2012	1/2012	12/2011	11/2011	10/2011	9/2011
8/2011	7/2011	6/2011

Your bookmark will appear on your Profile page. Please give it a title, and short description so that visitors to your page will understand where the bookmark leads.
Bookmark Title :

Bookmark Text :