Warnings and advisories as of 12:45 p.m.
A pedestrian opens his umbrella outside the Philtower Building in downtown Tulsa, on Monday, Feb. 25, 2013. JOHN CLANTON/Tulsa World
Well, it's now snowing here in Midtown. Nothing too crazy here, but it's definitely snow. I haven't seen any accumulations yet, but some folks on Twitter are saying it's starting to stick not far west of here. And the radar looks pretty heavy. Should be an interesting night.
Update 6:36 p.m.: After driving around midtown Tulsa for a bit just now, I can report that it is terribly disgusting outside. Really awful mix of drizzly rain and sleet mixed in. I haven't seen snow yet, temperature in Tulsa is about 38 degrees. It looks like the snow line is along I-35 to Oklahoma City with heavy snow still in Alva and Enid. People are
starting to report snow in Kay County as well. NWS is predicting snow will start here late tonight now.
Update 4:22 p.m. : The National Weather Service's latest forecast discussion still has the Tulsa metro area on track for 1 to 3 inches of snow, and it's still predicted to make the switch from rain to snow early Tuesday morning. The low pressure system is currently spinning along the Red River north of Fort Worth/Dallas area. The location and spin led to the dry slot over much of the Tulsa area, therefore more sporadic rain. That will change as the system moves east and northeast, with heavier rain first then snow. Tulsa is at 0.9 of an inch right now for the day, which is great. Winds in the Tulsa area are out of the northeast in the mid-teens to low 20s, making it feel much colder as well.
Co-worker just came in and reported some sleet in the Tulsa area.
Snow is still falling out west. A storm report from the emergency management in Woodward said they are at 15 inches as of 3:30 p.m. Alva has also seen about 15 inches, according to reports.
Looks like Tulsa may miss the brunt of this winter storm again. Sorry, kids.
The snow is
piling up in western Oklahoma with blizzard conditions and more than a foot of snow so far. Right now in Tulsa, it’s just rain. Lots and lots of sweet, sweet, glorious rain.
The Oklahoma Highway Patrol has
shut down several highways across western Oklahoma and the Panhandle. Many places in Texas and some in Oklahoma are reporting more than 14 inches of snow so far.
Blizzard warnings extend from Colorado to Washington County along the north and northwest of a line from Bartlesville to Stillwater to Altus. (Stillwater is not included, however.)
Along that line are Winter Storm Warnings and Winter Weather Advisories from Missouri into Arkansas and northwest from Fayetteville to McAlester to Ardmore.
That’s a wide, broad range. Here’s what we can expect for
totals right now, though that could change with a few degrees temperature change or a path north or south.
Miami to Tulsa is in the 2 inch range, with more possible. The totals grow significantly to the northwest, with more than 10 inches possible in western Osage County.
It’s all been rain and thunder and Tulsa so far. We’ve had 0.8 of an inch of rain in the past 5 hours or so, as of about noon. And that rain will be included with all the rain we got last week in the latest
Drought Monitor update, due out Thursday. Should be good news then.
The rain is expected to continue most of the day with change to snow coming to Tulsa very late tonight and early in the morning. Still, in Tulsa amounts should be light, comparatively.
Back to the headlines: If you’re thinking of traveling anywhere north or west of Tulsa today, change your plans. It’s the Blizzard of Oz, Part II (
not mine, but it’s pretty great, right?) as the storm brings another week of significant impacts across a wide swath of Kansas.
Keep checking here for updates and we keep watching things progress.
-- Jerry Wofford
