Music fans wait to watch for Damian Marley and Nas perform in the rain during the Lollapalooza music festival Sunday at Grant Park in Chicago. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
Another round of storms Monday night brought more rain to northeast Oklahoma. This is gettin' good!
It looks like we are finally getting some decent, somewhat-medium term relief from the massive, prolonged heat wave that plagued Tulsa and Oklahoma for most of the summer.
With the 0.4 inches of rain that fell at Tulsa International Airport last night, the
official rainfall total for the month is at 1.15 inches. And that is, get this,
above normal for the month. Above normal by 0.43 inches!
According to the Oklahoma Mesonet 24-hour rainfall totals as of 5:45 a.m. Tuesday, the winner was Hectorville in Okmulgee County, with 1.27 inches. Bixby had 0.23 inches, Oilton in Creek County had 0.78 inches.
Unfortunately, with the storms like we had last night, there is going to be some damage. A barn 3 miles southwest of Haskell was damaged by winds estimated at 80 mph (and, according to the storm reports, it is the same barn that was damaged in the May 24 tornado that went through the Muskogee County town). Power lines were also reported down near the Broken Arrow Expressway and 145th East Avenue, Hectorville--our rain winner--had wind gusts of about 66 mph. These are preliminary
storm reports from the NWS.
Now, for some more good news.
Would you look at that
forecast. Go ahead, I'll wait.
Right?! No 100 degree days for the next week! (It may say otherwise in the graphic across the top, but scroll down.) Highs in the
low-90s toward the end of the week, with lows near the 60s! OK...72, but it could happen!
AND, more rain! A 50 percent chance Wednesday and Wednesday night, with chances for many days this week.
OK...calm down. It's all very exciting, but I know better. It's only the beginning of August, so I doubt our 100-degree days are completely behind us. But after months of little rain and
oppressive heat, this reprieve, albeit small, is welcomed with open arms.
--Jerry Wofford
P.S.
It will be interesting to see what effect, if any, the week's rain will have on our drought conditions. The data for the weekly
U.S. Drought Monitor is cut off at 6 a.m. Tuesday and the map is released at 7:30 a.m. Thursday. As of Aug. 2, more than 88 percent of the state was in the extreme category, including Tulsa County. Nearly two-thirds of the state was in the most severe drought category. Hopefully the rainfall will start to slowly chip away at that. SPOILER ALERT:
It probably won't.
