News - Blogs - Believe it or not it really is winter

Believe it or not, it really is winter
Published: 1/30/2012 1:02 PM
Last Modified: 1/30/2012 1:02 PM

An Orthodox Christian cathedral in winter landscape in Kiev, Ukraine, Monday. Ukraine's Emergency Situations Ministry said 18 people died of hypothermia and nearly 500 people sought medical help for frostbites and hypothermia in just three days last week. Heavy snow and a severe cold snap have killed at least 36 people across eastern Europe and many areas were under emergency measures Monday as schools closed down, roads became impassible and power supplies were cut off. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

The Red Cross workers, left, gives hot tea to homeless people in Donetsk, Ukraine, Monday. Eighteen people have recently died of cold and nearly 500 people sought medical help for frostbites and hypothermia in just three days last week in Ukraine which has been struck by severe winter weather. Temperatures are expected to range from a high of minus 15C to lows around minus 20C over the next week. (AP Photo/Photomig)

I was looking for any reminders of winter for this blog entry, since it’s going to be near 70 degrees today (and tomorrow, and in the 60s most of this week). Yes, it’s still January, despite what you may think when you walk outside.

I saw someone wearing shorts in public yesterday. Come on.

This time last year, we were all hunkering down and preparing for BLIZZARD 2011!!!!!! Now, people are wearing shorts at the gas station.

When looking for reminders of winter in the Northern Hemisphere, you have to go to the opposite side of the planet.

To Serbia! Where a violent cold snap has lead to 36 deaths so far in central and eastern Europe.

They were having weather like ours recently: Mild, nice, all-around pleasant—by eastern European standards, at least. And that was part of the shock. Just ask Napoleon or Hitler; eastern European winters can be pretty rough. But what made this cold snap different was the mild weather the region experienced before the sudden change.

Temperatures dropped to minus 4 degrees Monday. With the cold came snow and power outages, leading to a lot of those deaths, most of whom were homeless.

In Ukraine, temperatures fell to 3 degree during the day and minus 10 at night. That’s like what we had this time last year. That’s cold. Schools were closed, 1,500 shelters were opened for more than 17,000 people.

From the Associated Press:

"Just as we thought we could get away with a spring-like winter ..." Jelena Savic, 43, from the Serbian capital of Belgrade, her head wrapped in a shawl with only eyes uncovered. "I'm freezing. It's hard to get used to it so suddenly."

And, well, it will probably stay that way for a while over there, forecasters think.

See? It really is winter in the Northern Hemisphere. Just, you know, not here. And looking at the forecast, it's barely going to get to freezing over the next week. (We could actually set a daily record minimum temperature overnight...)

The only thing I ask is that you keep the shorts in the drawer AT LEAST until mid to late March. Please? At least pretend it’s winter, just for a little bit.

--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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