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What does Tulsa's weather give up for Lent?
Published: 2/22/2012 11:06 AM
Last Modified: 2/22/2012 11:06 AM

For Lent, these ducks would like Tulsa weather to give up snow... and Tulsa drivers to give up honking at them when they are crossing the road. In this Feb. 13 photo, ducks walk amidst cold and snowy conditions in Owen Park in Tulsa. CORY YOUNG/Tulsa World File

Happy Ash Wednesday!

As told to World Scene Writer Nicole Marshall Middleton in her article here, here's what the religious season of Lent is:

Lent is a time of soul-searching and repentance in preparation for Easter, said Brian Desmarais, assistant director of Faith Formation at The Church of St. Mary, 1347 E. 49th Place.

"Traditionally, we give up something and go without things that are good and that we have grown accustomed to in our lives. That plays out in many different areas of our lives, including food," Desmarais said.

Some Lenten practices for Catholics include abstaining from meat on Fridays and on Ash Wednesday, he said. Catholics also will eat only one regular meal on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, which are designated days of fasting.

From some, it is also a 40-day test to see if we can give up a bad habit, either for good or until Easter.

In honor of today's religious holiday, a look back at what Tulsa's weather has seemed to give up for Lent recently ... even if Tulsa's weather eventually picked it up again:

2011: March 6-April 24:

Tulsa's weather gave up snow and really cold temperatures. And liquid precipitation, unfortunately.

After 22.5 inches of snow in February and temperatures dipping down to minus-12, March's had no snow and a low temperature of 24 degrees ... which was on Ash Wednesday, itself (March 6). Unfortunately, Tulsa's weather also gave up rain for Lent, yielding only 1 inch in March (more than 2.5 inches below normal).

However, Tulsa's weather saw the error of its drought-like ways by Easter, with 2.88 inches on Easter itself (April 24). Too bad that didn't last the rest of 2011, huh?

2010: Feb. 17-April 4

A few days after Ash Wednesday on Feb. 21, Tulsa's weather decided to relent with not giving the area rain with 1.2 inches all in one day.

By March, rainfall was almost at normal levels (about 0.3 below normal) and we only had five freezing temperature days. At the end of March into the beginning of April, Tulsa's weather had truly repented from it's winter-like ways, having highs in the 80s from March 30-April 1 and again on Easter (April 4).

Alas, old habits die hard, because April's rain was far below normal, 2.08 inches (1.87 below normal).

2009: Feb. 25-April 12

This should be a familiar tale to anyone who has ever tried a New Year's resolution or given up something during Lent: Tulsa's weather started off the season with highs in the 70s and 80s. And then, immediately dipped back into its old freezing ways, with highs in the 30s and 40s (and lows in the 20s).

Lent 2009 included 5 inches of rain in March, almost 1.5 inches above normal, but just couldn't shake its old habit of highs in the 40s and freezing lows until April.

On Easter itself (April 12), Tulsa received 1.85 inches of rain, assuring an above-normal rainfall for all of April. Tulsa also dropped its freezing temperatures by the end of Lent, with the last day below freezing on April 7 (28 degrees).

2008: Feb. 6-March 23

Just a few days before Ash Wednesday, Tulsa had unseasonably high temperatures on Feb. 3-4, with highs of 73 and 81 degrees.

By Lent, however, Tulsa weather repented from its unseasonable ways and returned to more normal temperatures. Amazingly, rainfall was less than 0.1 of an inch from its normal and temperatures were less than a degree away from normals in February.

Tulsa weather continued to be mostly normal in March, with temperatures exactly on their normals for the month (an average of 51.4 degrees). However, Tulsa weather decided to splurge on rainfall less than a week before Easter, with 2.75 inches on March 18.

And then, to show that it was being serious, Tulsa's weather yielded more than 9 inches of rain that April, the wettest April in Tulsa history.

2007: Feb. 21-April 8

In 2007, Tulsa started Lent off unseasonably warm (highs in the 70s four times in late February) and dry (below normal rainfalls for both February and March).

Alas, Tulsa's weather could not shake its below-normal rainfall ways by Easter. However, it's temperatures did sink to more seasonable ones... so far down that they were actually 3 degrees below normal in April.

In a nutshell, Lent weather in Tulsa is a time when you can expect the snow to disappear, the temperatures to stop freezing, and the rain to ... well, that varies.

I am optimistic that this year's Lent will have more seasonable rainfall and nice weather. Based on the fact that today's forecasted sunny high is 73 degrees, we'll likely at least get one of those.

--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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