News - Blogs - Strong cold front brings dramatic changes

Strong cold front brings dramatic changes
Published: 9/10/2012 5:28 PM
Last Modified: 9/10/2012 5:36 PM

Scaffolding falls off the top of the One Place building as high winds move through downtown Tulsa, Okla., on September 7, 2012 . JAMES GIBBARD/Tulsa World

Rosetta Britton braces herself after she is caught by gusty winds at 2nd and Boulder downtown Friday September 7, 2012. CHRISTOPHER SMITH/ Tulsa World

The cold front that blew through the state last Friday had been well forecasted days in advance. Forecasters knew it would be strong, bring storms and drop temperatures quickly and by a couple dozen degrees.

What caught most people, including myself, by surprise was just how strong it actually was, how strong winds were behind it and how severe the storms it generated would be. Four people were killed—including two elderly people and their young grandchild—in what can be attributed to straight line winds from the storms.

Friday morning, the cold front was clearly visible on the Oklahoma Mesonet maps, especially the wind gradient map. The winds ahead of the front were strong out of the south, and behind the front they were even stronger out of the north. The temperatures were dropping 20 degrees in an hour in some places. As it approached northeast Oklahoma, thunderstorms formed that quickly turned severe.

According to the National Weather Service personnel who surveyed the damage in Nowata County caused by the storm, several mobile homes were destroyed, other homes were damaged and several out buildings and barns were destroyed. Numerous trees were uprooted and power poles were snapped.

The preliminary storm survey suggests that a “violent downburst had occurred,’ according to the orientation of the damage and its location. Wind speeds in the downburst were estimated to be between 80 and 100 mph.

The storm prompted several storm warnings as the cell developed into a squall line as it moved east into Arkansas.

The Tulsa metro area missed that initial line of storms, but we got the winds and temperature drop. And it was impressive.

The Skiatook Oklahoma Mesonet site recorded 26 mph and gusts near 40. A gust of 57 mph was recorded at the Mesonet site in Wynona. Temperatures dropped 17 degrees in an hour in Skiatook and Claremore had a drop of 23 degrees.

Here is the meteogram from the Skiatook Mesonet station in the 12-hour period between noon Friday and midnight showing temperature and wind speed.

See if you can spot the moment the front went through. The change is drastic.

Tulsa International Airport recorded a high temperature of 103 degrees at 2:30 p.m. and had dropped to 78 by 5 p.m. The maximum gust recorded there was 53 mph.

And speaking from experience, that wind was absolutely brutal. As soon as it came through, the editors had me go outside and talk to some construction workers working on the new tower at 3rd Street and Denver Avenue. As soon as I came around the corner, the gusts nearly knocked me down. People leaving their office for the day had the same rude surprise.

Those strong winds were caused by a “tight gradient and rapid pressure rise,” the weather service said. Air moves from areas of high pressure to low pressure, and when that difference in pressure is wide and close geographically, you get winds like we had Friday.

That wind also swept away summer. Or at least 100-degree days, I hope. While this week will be in the low 90s before another cold front Thursday or Friday bring more chances for rain and cooler temperatures, just in time for another wonderful weekend.

Aside from the deadly severe storms, I think I’ll enjoy this pattern, if it keeps up and continues to bring days in the 70s.

--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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