News - Blogs - Tulsa weather records rainfall and statewide drought updates

Tulsa weather records, rainfall and statewide drought updates
Published: 10/27/2011 7:00 AM
Last Modified: 10/27/2011 9:46 AM

Apologies to baseball fans, but we needed this rain as soon as possible. Pictured here, a worker removes a tarp from the infield at Busch Stadium Wednesday in St. Louis, after officials announced that Game 6 of baseball's World Series is postponed due to rain. JEFF ROBERSON/AP Photo

Today's lyrical inspiration is brought to you by Creedence Clearwater Revival:

Someone told me long ago
There's a calm before the storm,
I know;
It's been comin' for some time.
When it's over, so they say,
It'll rain a sunny day,
I know;
Shinin' down like water.

I want to know, have you ever seen the rain?
I want to know, have you ever seen the rain
Comin' down on a sunny day?

On my morning commute Wednesday, it happened: Rain on a sunny day (preceded by rain I slept through that morning and followed by rain on a cold night). It is such an odd weather occurrence that I just had to ask Tulsa National Weather Service meteorologist Karen Hatfield about our scattered Wednesday morning showers:

"Since the showers were small, not a lot of the sky was obscured by the rain-producing cloud, and in your instance, the cloud wasn't obscuring the sun either," Hatfield said. "It happens occasionally, but there really is no seasonality to it. Its occurrence would be tied more to an individual meteorological setup than anything else."

These weren't just tiny pitter patter raindrops either but the ones that make the loud TWACK noise against your windshield, that temporarily blind you if you forgot your umbrella. Hatfield said that while there is no proof to back it up, she thinks that "rain on a sunny day" occurs most often with larger rain drops because those occur with convective clouds that can be somewhat isolated at times, as opposed to a more widespread - and sky blocking - stratoform deck.

But enough on precipitation for now. We had (yet another!) Tulsa weather record for 2011 last week: 30-degree low on Oct. 20. Here is an updated list of area records and streaks set this year:

2011 regional weather records and streaks:

October:

30: Lowest temperature for Tulsa on Oct. 20

September:

51: Lowest temperature for Tulsa on Sept. 9
49: Lowest temperature for Tulsa on Sept. 7
48: Lowest temperature for Tulsa on Sept. 6

August:

113: Highest temperature for Tulsa on Aug. 3.
112: Highest temperature for Tulsa on Aug. 2 and Aug. 5.
110: Highest temperature for Tulsa on Aug. 1
109: Highest temperature for Tulsa on Aug. 6.
108: Highest temperature for Tulsa on Aug. 24
3.44: The most Tulsa rainfall on Aug. 10.

6 consecutive days of rain (ended Aug. 13)

14 consecutive days reaching the 100s (ended Aug. 8)

July:

Hottest U.S. month in history set in Oklahoma, average statewide temperature of 89.1 degrees.

11 consecutive days reaching the 100s (ended July 24)

107: Highest temperature for Tulsa on July 10 and July 27.
104: Highest temperature for Tulsa on July 7.

June:

106: Highest temperature for Tulsa on June 27.
29: Most days in June with highs in the 90s for Tulsa

April:

Record flooding at the Illinois River in Watts on April 26.

March:

The driest March on record in southeast Oklahoma

February:

27: Most snowfall (in inches) in a 24-hour period, Feb. 8-9 in Spavinaw
22.5: Most Tulsa snowfall (in inches) in a month and for February
14: Most Tulsa snowfall (in inches) for a 24-hour period and snow depth, set Jan. 31 to Feb. 1.

13.2: Most Tulsa snowfall (in inches) for a calendar day, set Feb. 1

-31: Coldest temperature, Feb. 10 in Nowata

The primary source for these records is the National Weather Service.

The U.S. Drought Monitor released their updated drought classifications for this week and while the situation is about the same for Tulsa County, a few other areas of the state got some relief:

The dark red areas, D4 for exceptional drought, continue to shrink. The bright red, D3 for extreme drought areas (including Tulsa County), are replacing some areas of D4, while the orange, D2 for severe drought areas are continuing to appear in new areas.

But wait, you are probably thinking. Didn't we just get a ton of rain overnight? Yes, we sure did. Alas, the drought monitor is on a Tuesday-Tuesday schedule, so it does not count Wednesday or Thursday rainfall, even though the classifications are released today.

More rain and colder temperatures should continue to help the entire state get in a better, safer situation.

--Althea Peterson

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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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