By WEATHER WORLD on Jun 29, 2011, at 7:00 AM Updated on 6/28 at 10:06 PM
WEATHER WORLD
At the cookout I went to Sunday evening, it was tank top, cutoff jean shorts and flip flops. My friend said to me, “you look ...
This blog was inspired by some of our early morning commenters on the weather forecast story .
Yes, as one of you pointed ...
The deluge earlier this month was exciting. For a second, I though that maybe the near-record parched May was just a fluke ...
Despite what this downtown downpour shows Tuesday, Tulsa only officially received 0.06 inches of rain that afternoon. TOM GILBERT/Tulsa World
A man walks through the wet streets in downtown Tulsa after a thunderstorm on Tuesday. MATT BARNARD/Tulsa World
In this Sept. 2, 2000 file photo, OU's Jeremy Wilson delivers a hit on UTEP quarterback Rocky Perez in the second half. MICHAEL WYKE/Tulsa World File
The rain came yesterday;
‘Twas a storm that visited Green Country,
And took 106 degree heat away. With apologies to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, we hadn't had 100-degree heat since Aug. 20 of last year. Then, a slight cold front (relative term, National Weather Service meteorologists assure me) and precipitation hits Tulsa, and our morning temperatures lurk around the mid to upper 70s, climbing to the 80s in the afternoon. Is our 90-degree high heat record of June possibility over?
No! Since 1905, there have been 16 years where Tulsa never hit 100 degrees, but obviously, this will not be number 17. So what were the other years like? Let's relive history, shall we?
Six months have all-time highs in the 100s, including April (102 degrees, 1972), May (100 degrees, 1934), June (108 degrees, 1911), July (113 degrees, 1936), August (115 degrees, 1936) and September (109 degrees, 1939).The average first 100-degree high is July 10th. The highest temperature of all time was Aug. 10, 1936, with 115 degree heat. The average latest 100 degree high in the calendar year is Aug. 23. The record for consecutive number of 100 degree temperatures is 22, set in 1918 and 1936. Of note, 1980 has two top streaks of 100 degree days: One ended July 21 (21 days, ranking third all-time) and the other ended Aug. 16 (20 days, ranking fourth). The latest 100 degree temperature in the year occurred Sept. 28, 1953. Karen Hatfield, the Tulsa National Weather Service meteorologist providing these statistics, said she remembers the most recent late season 100-degree weather well, which was in 2000.
"I distinctly remember attending the first OU football game that season (in Norman, of course!) against UTEP, and it was 108 at the 6 p.m. kickoff," Hatfield said.
Here is a photo from that game. And here's what World columnist Dave Sittler had to say back then:
"Four hours before Saturday night's start of the Oklahoma-UTEP football game, ticket prices outside Memorial Stadium were climbing faster than mercury in the thermometers.
"Give me 50 bucks and I'll throw in a bottle of water," bellowed one scalper standing on the corner of Asp Avenue and Lindsey Street as he attempted to double his money on a $25 ticket.
Four hours later, the tickets and the water both had evaporated.
The water was gulped up by those parched from the oppressive heat, which still sizzled at 106 degrees for the early evening kickoff." You can read Dave Sittler's entire column on that game
here. The game recap is
here.--Althea Peterson
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