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Don't start your fall campfires yet: burn bans still the rule
Published: 9/17/2012 4:22 PM
Last Modified: 9/17/2012 4:22 PM

Burn bans currently in effect

So, it’s a good news bad news situation if you were hoping to start any fires outside anytime soon in Tulsa County.

The good news is that Gov. Mary Fallin lifted the statewide burn ban for 22 counties that went into effect Aug. 3. The bad, well more disappointing than bad, news is that Tulsa County initiated a county-wide burn ban effective between now and next Monday.

I guess it’s still disappointing news if you are in one of the 55 counties still under a state burn ban. Sorry bout that.

So, what changed for those 22 counties? Rain! Like, prolonged periods of beneficial rainfall for several parts of the state!

To make sure I got all of it, here are the rainfall totals across the state for the last seven days. The seven-day winner is… Jay! with 3.8 inches of rain. But, in the last seven days, each of the Oklahoma Mesonet stations recorded at least some rainfall.

The rain was associated with some cold fronts that came through the area, breaking that summertime heat and bringing much-needed relief. Where September has had above-average temperatures for much of the month, with highs above 100 five days this month, the past three days have had high temps about 10 degrees below average in Tulsa.

And while our rainfall wasn’t nearly as impressive as Jay’s, Tulsa did get 0.58 inches on Friday and Saturday, with drizzly weather Thursday and Sunday that recorded a trace at Tulsa International Airport. It brings our monthly total to 0.69 inches. That’s 1.57 inches below normal for the month.

But, what we saw this weekend was a real, tangible preview of fall. It was absolutely wonderful.

It’s too early to say that fall weather is here to stay, though the highs through next week will stay in the mid-80s and 70s. But the first actual day of fall, the autumnal equinox, is on Saturday. So, the likelihood of 100 or even 90 degree days is diminishing every day. Being Oklahoma and 2012, some more hot days are not out of the realm of possibility yet.

--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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