News - Blogs - Tulsa World cartoonist Bruce Plante versus the snow

Tulsa World cartoonist Bruce Plante versus the snow
Published: 8/29/2011 7:00 AM
Last Modified: 8/23/2011 5:38 PM

And THIS is "The Tooth Fairy!" I hope you all get that reference. I really do. Courtesy/2010 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation and Walden

When you think of Oklahoma weather if you're not from Oklahoma, all you need to see if my high school yearbook comments:

"Don't get sucked up in a twister."

"Look out for tornadoes!"

Even earthquakes are starting to becomes more synonymous with Oklahoma, but snow?! We're too far south, right? We're practically in Texas at this point, and Texas is, like, hot, right?

Having experienced snow every winter growing up, I have gotten used to seeing everything covered in a white blanket. Of course, every small rural area has its own fleet of snow plows in Wisconsin. Here? Well, it can lead to some humorous commentary, as Tulsa World's own cartoonist Bruce Plante shows:

Would you believe that the weather service actually has a special page dedicated to Christmas weather information in Tulsa? Check it out here.

The most snow Tulsa has ever had fall on Christmas was 1.3 inches in 1975. More recently, Tulsa has had trace amounts of snow in 2010 and 0.4 of an inch on 2009.

As the weather service notes, 2009 truly did have a "White Christmas," with about 6 inches of snow on the ground that holiday. Enough to make you want to chuck Bing Crosby's song out the window?

Leaving politics out of this, February's record snowfall will be something that Tulsa talks about for years to come. When 14 inches fell from Jan. 31 to Feb. 1, that was bad. When temperatures rose enough to melt the snow during the day only for it to freeze overnight, that was worse. When yet another snowfall came a week later to the tune of 5.2 inches on Feb. 9, it was time to call off school again.

Tulsa received 22.5 inches of snow that February. We've had 26.1 so far this season. That's enough to make this Wisconsin native just a tad bit nervous.

It is also worth noting what other areas outside of Tulsa were enduring. A new Oklahoma record for most snowfall in a 24-hour period was set in Spavinaw on Feb. 9 (27 inches). From Ponca City to Chelsea to Fayetteville, Ark., snowfall amounts from Feb. 8-9 were 12 to 18 inches to the west, and 18 to 25 inches to the east.

It was also a time for extremely cold temperatures. In Nowata, the lowest temperature ever recorded was set on Feb. 10 (minus-31 degrees). Bartlesville recorded a low of minus-28 degrees. Tulsa was minus-12 degrees.

--Althea Peterson

PS: Want to know more about these snow 'toons? Check out Bruce Plante's blog here.

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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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