Tulsa Public works employee Cory Horton uses a back hoe to plow the neighborhood streets near Yorktown, Feb. 3, 2011. STEPHEN PINGRY/Tulsa World File
Tulsa Transit Mechanic Richard Sanders digs out snow around his truck after getting stuck on 3rd near Cheyenne while trying to pull as Tulsa Transit bus out of the snow Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2010 in Tulsa. CHRISTOPHER SMITH/Tulsa World File
46th and Sheridan is clear of traffic in blizzard like conditions on Feb. 1, 2011 TOM GILBERT/Tulsa World
Ila Dooley works to dig her car out to try and get to work Feb. 1, 2011 in Owasso. MIKE SIMONS/Tulsa World File
In honor of the one-year anniversary of Tulsa's record setting snowfall, we decided to do our first ever joint blog entry. We will be back later today with more snow record information and photos from the blizzard.
Q: Where were you and what were you doing on Feb. 1, 2011? Althea: I live in a neighborhood just off Riverside Drive south of Interstate 44 that received no snowplow treatment, so I was 100 percent snowed in. I put in about 10 hours of work that day on my home computer updating tulsaworld.com and contacting the Tulsa National Weather Service, then when it was all over, attempted to shovel the driveway. It reminded me of growing up in Wisconsin --- the snow was heavy, it was almost as tall as me and you always underestimate where the driveway and sidewalks end.
Jerry: I live downtown, about a mile from the Tulsa World offices. And while the paper wasn't delivered in its physical form for a couple days, it was an all-hands-on-deck situation to update the web. Those who could get in here walked. I threw on my snow gear, several coats, boots and ice spikes and took off on my mile-long journey through the middle of the blizzard.
On my way, I ran into Dick Faurot, a meteorologist at Channel 6. His truck was stuck sideways going up the incline between 7th and 6th streets on Boulder Avenue. It was cold. I was wearing about five layers. It was slippery. It was miserable. We finally got his S-10 or small-ish pickup truck up the hill and off he drove, without a word. I was hurt. Mostly, my heart was about to explode out of my chest and the sweat was freezing on my brow. He got kinda stuck again a little further down the road and I kept walking. Snow rules.
Q: What surprised you most about Tulsa's blizzard? Althea: Every rural community back in Wisconsin has its own fleet of snow plows and even 14 inches of snow would not call off school where I lived. Not having roads, even back roads, plowed, salted or sanded, and cleared in time for morning commutes and school buses was unheard of. It made me want to not only shovel the driveway, but the nearby sidewalks and street intersections that people were getting stuck in.
Jerry: What surprised me was not the blizzard itself, but the schizophrenic temperature swings on either side of the blizzard. On Jan. 29, 2011, days before the worst blizzard in Tulsa history, the record high of 76 degrees was reached here. On Feb. 10, we hit record lows, including an all-time Oklahoma record of -31 degrees in Nowata. Seven days later, the temperature was 110 degrees warmer in Nowata. That's unfathomable. That was and is the greatest 7-day change in Oklahoma history. In Tulsa, we went from a low -12 on Feb. 10 to a high of 79 on Feb. 17--a 91 degree difference. We had another 91-degree temperature change last year, but it took more than four months, from Aug. 3 (record 113) to Dec. 6.
Q: What should Tulsa and northeastern Oklahoma learn from the blizzard? Althea: I think that with as much extreme weather as the area has seen in their lifetimes, people may tend to be skeptical when certain weather events are forecast. People had their warnings for this one in the form of a 100 percent chance of snow, a winter storm warning and a forecast for 10 to 14 inches of snow for the area. I hope the Tulsa area learned to be prepared for weather's worst, while hoping for the best.
Jerry: Last year's snowstorm was a once-in-a-lifetime event. With both La Nina (drier and warmer winters) and a positive Arctic Oscillation Index (stable Arctic air tends to stay up north) last year, it was a near perfect example of how weather is different than climate. Last year, while wild, was warmer and drier than average. Yes, we hit record low temperatures, but we had record highs the weeks before and after the snow. We had feet of frozen water fall, but the month was only 0.62 inches above normal for precipitation. March was 2.57 inches below normal rainfall. What I hope people took away from the event is that there are outliers; trends are not made or broken by a single event.
Check back later today for more on February 2011's record snowfall.
-- Jerry Wofford and Althea Peterson
