News - Blogs - Graph shows Oklahoma tornadoes damage weather reading sites for Mesonet last week

Graph shows Oklahoma tornadoes damage weather reading sites for Mesonet last week
Published: 11/16/2011 12:32 PM
Last Modified: 11/16/2011 12:32 PM

The red dots mean that information is missing from that particular Oklahoma Mesonet site. It should come as no surprise that one of the missing sites from this Wednesday rainfall map is none other than Tipton.

A few days ago, I mentioned that the National Weather Service declared that Tipton's Nov. 7 tornado was the first EF4 in state history to happen in the month of November.

That seemed odd, so I just had to follow-up... and then my brother, the real meteorologist in the family, sent me this:

"Station knocked out by debris?!" I had to ask Gary McManus, associate state climatologist with the Oklahoma Climatological Survey, about this.

"The Tipton and Fort Cobb Mesonet sites were both taken out by tornadoes last Monday," McManus said. "We're still assessing what needs to be repaired."

That means that if you try to see what info Tipton and Fort Cobb have to offer, you'll get a big "NA" right now ... although it does look like Fort Cobb was temporarily back. Check it out here.

What exactly is the Oklahoma Mesonet? In a nutshell, it's your best friend if you want to know what any part of the state's weather is like at any given moment during any given day. Thanks to 120 sites across the state, including one in each county, every corner of Oklahoma is covered by the Oklahoma Mesonet.

Well, except for Tipton and Fort Cobb, I guess. But considering that the National Weather Service reported winds of 166 to 200 mph near Tipton during its EF4, it's kind of understandable ... or is it?

"The El Reno Mesonet site was brushed by the EF5 tornado in May, but not a direct hit," McManus said.

So it's the first-ever case of a Mesonet site getting taken out by the weather it is recording and the first-ever November EF4 tornado in Oklahoma on record. Speaking of, does this mean there really isn't a tornado season in Oklahoma anymore?

"There is a definite 'season' when the frequency of tornadoes is higher in Oklahoma (April-June), but Oklahomans should be prepared
for severe weather year-round," McManus said.

Although I am hesitant to write this because it might jinx us, I will anyway: Oklahoma has never had an EF4 or EF5 in December (records date back to 1950). Without solid proof like Tipton provided, we might still not have either in November, either.

"The way tornadoes are rated, if they don't hit solid structures, it's difficult to tell their exact strength," McManus said. "We were unfortunate enough that this one hit the OSU Agronomy Station that allowed a bump-up from EF2 to EF4."

Once again, here's the youtube video of the culprit of Tipton's station damage:

--Althea Peterson

PS: Check out the Oklahoma Mesonet at tulsaworld.com/mesonet.

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 :