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Springtime for Tulsa
Published: 2/28/2012 3:03 PM
Last Modified: 2/28/2012 3:03 PM

You might not want to do if this weekend, but the rest of the week it is certainly possible. Andrew Gehl from Tulsa reads a book while sitting on a bench in Woodward Park on Saturday during a mild, sunny day. JAMES GIBBARD/Tulsa World

I have good news.

The official start of spring is now three weeks away. Three weeks! That’s not too far!

But, walking around outside and looking at the spring-like storms about to roll across the plains (we’ll get back to that), you’d think spring had sprung three weeks ago.

On today, the last NORMAL day of February, the average temperature for the month so far has been 44.4 degrees in Tulsa. That’s 2.3 degrees above normal for the month. Last month, the average was 44.2 degrees, which is 6.5 degrees above normal. “What about December,” you ask. I’m glad you did. The average was 42.4, or 2.9 degrees above normal.

So, the winter of 2011-2012 was non-existent. No snow worth mentioning, sunshine and 60-degree days. We went straight from fall to spring.

And I’m fine with that, I guess. I mean, it’s not like we all have a lot of say in the matter, but it would have been nice to have to break out the ice spikes, snow boots, snow pants and snow jacket I got after last year’s blizzard (when I realized that jeans aren’t good for walking through a foot of snow) at least more than half of one day.

Anyway, I never liked you anyway, winter. I guess if we have to break up, you would be all cold about it, avoiding us and running away up north to be with your friends.

But spring is still our friend. And the best characteristic of springtime in Oklahoma? Thunderstorms. Hold on to your butts, kids. Like I said earlier, spring has sprung.

For Tulsa, the chances of monster dramatic storms destroying all of eastern Oklahoma are slim tonight. Right now, it’s a 40 percent chance of showers for the rest of the day and a 50 percent chance of storms tonight.

The storms tonight will pop up along the cool front as it sweeps across the area, taking with it the moisture associated with the storms and showers today. It should all be out of here by midnight.

However, our clearing will be unfortunate for most of Arkansas. The Storm Prediction Center has expanded the area of slight risk for severe storms. Yesterday, the area was quite small. Today, it includes a good chunk of Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois and Tennessee.

Breaking down that probability more, the highest tornado chances are mostly in Missouri and Arkansas, but it includes the far northeast corner of Oklahoma. Those chances are small though, only 5 percent right now.

But still, looking at the way things are shaping up, watches are likely this afternoon/evening. So, be careful out there.

Also, if things start to get real hairy out there today, I'll be updating this with the latest information.

--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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