News - Blogs - Lightning strikes college football in Oklahoma with photos and videos

Lightning strikes college football in Oklahoma (with photos and videos)
Published: 10/24/2011 10:51 AM
Last Modified: 10/24/2011 12:42 PM

Rain pours down before an NCAA college football game between Oklahoma and Texas Tech Saturday in Norman. The game was delayed because of lightning in the area. SUE OGRICKI/AP Photo

As that song that they used to play before football games at Oklaohma Memorial Stadium goes, "Hate to say I told you so."

That chance of rain forecast for Saturday night in Norman turned out to be a very powerful storm that hit other parts of the state as well, including Tulsa (we had 1.04 inches of rain Saturday!).

I just spoke to a National Weather Service meteorologist in Norman's office. At a Mesonet site just two miles east of OU's stadium, they reportedly received 1.5 inches on Saturday!

Here are some videos some people posted from the weather delay on Youtube:

Here's another photo from the Associated Press' Sue Ogrocki from the lightning delay:

(SUE OGROCKI/AP Photo)

The rest of these are from the Tulsa World's own Matt Barnard:

I wish I could say that my beloved alma mater got a raw deal, that they were thrown into a unique and terrible situation, but honestly, this is neither unique nor terrible.

First, as you regular blog readers might realize, this is not unique. My first "lightning strikes college football" entry was back on Sept. 5 (check it out here!), when Notre Dame's home game against South Florida, Michigan hosting Western Michigan were both delayed by lightning and one was even cancelled for safety reasons.

Then, I came back on Sept. 20 with yet another lightning/football entry (here!) when Baylor postponed, then cancelled its home game against Stephen F. Austin... and of course, here in Tulsa, the OSU-TU game didn't start until after midnight because of lightning delays!

And then, I came back a third time when lightning (and apparently dragonflies too) descended on Miami (Florida) when Kansas State visited "The U" for its upset victory. Check that one out here.

So, not a unique situation. We were not the first team to have a lightning delay this season, nor were we the first team to lose a home game after a lightning delay.

And, is it really such a bad thing that a state in such desperate need of rain in the midst of extreme and exceptional drought finally receives some precipitation?

I am not a selfish Sooner fan. Please don't hate me for saying this, but as much as the loss pained me as a fan, we probably needed the rain more than a Sooner victory this weekend.

--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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