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'The Girl' is back
Published: 9/15/2011 11:36 AM
Last Modified: 9/15/2011 11:36 AM

This map shows the average sea surface temperature anomalies for the week of Aug. 31. Toward the right, off of South America, the blue indicates cooler temps and new La Ni?a. Great. (Image courtesy NOAA)

In May, the waters of the Pacific Ocean off of the coast of South America began to warm up, thus signaling the end of a particularly rough La Niña cycle.

The phenomenon is believed to be at least in part for the wild weather we’ve experienced in Oklahoma and around the world.

Then the ocean was all like, “NOT SO FAST LOL!”

That’s right. After a little warm up to neutral temperatures, the ocean has started to cool again, signaling another La Niña is starting up. It is forecast to strengthen and continue into the winter.

Well, isn’t that just fantastic… (I know it’s sometimes hard to convey sarcasm in writing, but I just want to make it perfectly clear here, that this is actually not fantastic.)

For a refresher, La Niña is a natural phenomenon that normally happens every three to five years. It is the interaction between cooler water in the Pacific and the atmosphere that influences global weather patterns. About half of the time a back-to-back La Nina can occur.

La Niña usually means warmer and drier conditions for the southern portion of the United States (check) and wetter in the Pacific Northwest and Ohio Valley.

The La Niña of 2010-2011 started in June and ended in May. And it was rough.

La Niña is the likely culprit of the drought and heat here massive snowfall, devastating floods in Australia and is contributing to the worsening famine in equatorial east Africa.

“This means drought is likely to continue in the drought-stricken states of Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico,” said Mike Halpert, deputy director of the Climate Prediction Center.

Wonderful.

So, if you were coming to the weather blog today looking for good news about the long-term future, you are now sorely disappointed.

Short term, however, we will likely get some rain! Hooray! Chances are pretty high today and tomorrow, which is good because with only a trace recorded so far this month, Tulsa is more than 2 inches behind normal for the month and nearly 9 inches down for the year. That’s a lot of catching up to do.

--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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