News - Blogs - Lamenting the loss of 100degree weather and remembering 2000 OUUTEP football

Lamenting the loss of 100-degree weather (and remembering 2000 OU-UTEP football)
Published: 6/29/2011 7:00 AM
Last Modified: 6/28/2011 10:06 PM

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

O, not in cruelty, not in wrath,
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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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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