Send some of that rain east, Oklahoma City! In this May 26 photo, heavy rain falls during the the Big 12 Baseball Championship between Kansas State and Baylor at the Bricktown Ballpark in Oklahoma City. CHRIS LANDSBERGER/NewsOK.com
Rain's arrived! Storm systems often hit west of Tulsa before moving east to our area, including the one in downtown Tulsa's ONEOK Field on Monday night. JEFF LAUTENBERGER/Tulsa World
If it's raining in Stillwater, Oklahoma City, or southwestern Kansas, get excited! It's likely headed Tulsa's way.
For the past several years of eyeing the radar here, I have grown accustomed to the usual easterly travel pattern of Oklahoma storms, but often wondered if this was just an Oklahoma thing, or if I was just now noticing it. Here's what Tulsa National Weather Servivce meteorologist Karen Hatfield has to say:
"The overwhelming majority of storms and storm systems in the United States move from a westerly direction to an easterly one," said Hatfield.
So, is this due east, southeast, or northeast? All three, Hatfield said. It all depends on the overall flow pattern and other smaller scale details governing storm movement and propagation.
"The basic reason for this is fairly simple; the mid and upper level winds (the jet stream) are the main control over a storm's direction of movement, and they blow from a west to east direction."
This is not a worldwide thing, however. In the Caribbean and most of the Gulf of Mexico, Hatfield explains, there are tropical east to west winds, hence the Atlantic hurricanes often moving from east to west.
And of course, there are exceptions, like this summer, Hatfield said.
"With an upper high atop the area; in this case, the upper flow is very weak (no prevailing west to east winds aloft), causing storms to be nearly stationary or moving as a result of some other mechanism, such as 'following' a local maximum in instability.
"An inland tropical system is another exception that is sometimes observed around here. Some of the storms will likely move from east to west around a portion of the remnant circulation."
As you keep an eye on the radar with me today for those forecasted showers and thunderstorms, remember to look west to anticipate what will eventually happen here.
And for our western neighbors, please share your precipitation wealth and don't let the storm systems die out before they get to the Tulsa area.
--Althea Peterson
PS: Why does the jet stream go from west to east?
Here is more info on global circulations via the National Weather Service. And
here is more info on the jet stream itself.
