News - Blogs - Tired of Tulsa weather It could be worse

Tired of Tulsa weather? It could be worse...
Published: 7/19/2011 11:03 PM
Last Modified: 7/19/2011 11:03 PM

That purple-ish area? That is an excessive heat warning. The deep red off the coast is tropical storm warning for Bret spinning off Florida.

Paul Caldwell, Springfield, Mo., pours water over his neck to cool off while clearing tornado debris in Joplin, Mo., on Monday. As the heat wave continues, tornado relief volunteers are keeping hydrated. (AP Photo/The Joplin Globe, Roger Nomer)

Last weekend, I proposed an escape to the winter wonderland of Australia to escape the sweltering, oppressive heat in Tulsa.

However, if you can’t make it down there (I would assume that applies to most people), then how about we take a page from the it-could-be-worse file.

Althea took thenostalgic approach last week, but in the here and now, there are a lot of places around the central and eastern United States that are much worse than Tulsa.

For example, the town of Knoxville, Iowa, had a heat index Monday of 131. Which means, in Knoxville, Iowa, on Monday, it felt like it was 131 degrees. My brain hurts just trying to wrap my head around what that would feel like.

For some comparison, the highest air temperature ever recorded is 136 degrees in Libya in 1922.

While Knoxville was definitely the heat index winner from Monday, other areas also had unfathomably high heat index readings: 129 in Newton, Iowa, 126 in Atlantis and Council Bluffs, Iowa, 124 in Freeport, Ill., and Madison, Minn.

It’s also worth noting that air conditioners are rare in those far northern states. While I sit in this very well air conditioned office downtown, I can’t imagine what that must be like to try to go to sleep in Minneapolis, where Monday’s heat index was 117.

The strong ridge of high pressure that is causing Heatmageddon 2011 (thanks for indulging me on that one…) has been parked for the last several days over the Iowa area. It is now starting to move toward the eastern seaboard, but that movement won’t necessarily mean relief anytime soon for us.

The current forecast is boring and redundant. Allow me to summarize: Over 100 and no rain. Forever. (or at least for the next seven to 10 days)

So drink lots and lots of water, avoid the heat as much as possible and take it easy. And remember, fall is only 66 days away.

--Jerry Wofford

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Malo.32 (last year)

Do you know what the actual temps were? I looked at a few different articles and none of them had core temps listed. Also, I agreed with everything you said except that air conditioners are rare in the most northern states. I've spent most of my life in Minnesota and the Dakotas and have never met anyone without AC. It's just as common there as here.

Tulsa World Web Reporter (last year)

According to the NWS, looks like it reached 100 on Monday in Knoxville (just southeast of Des Moines). The excessive heat warnings for Iowa cite both the heat and the humidity, which might have resulted in the higher heat index values.

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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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