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Wild winter weather
Published: 8/16/2011 6:28 AM
Last Modified: 8/16/2011 6:28 AM

People walk through a main street under snow in Auckland, New Zealand, Monday, Aug, 15, 2011. Services across the country were disrupted Monday by the snowfalls, which were accompanied by heavy rain and high winds. (AP Photo/New Zealand Herald, Sarah Ivey)

My dad and I were talking about this year's weather and how totally and completely schizophrenic it has been. Between the record snowfall, spring storms and blazing summer here, he's right.

Looking down south--way, way south--the weather is just as wild.

I've mentioned before Australia's crazy winter this year. Well, Australia's neighbor New Zealand is also totally off the wall.

Wellington, New Zealand's capital, had only a few inches of snow Sunday and Monday. "Only a few inches, you say? Psh." I know. But, those few inches are the most that has fallen there in at least 30 years. So, that's crazy! According to the Associated Press, people were taking pictures and cheering what forecasters were calling a once-in-a-lifetime event.

Across the South Pacific now for some more unusual winter weather.

This is the Atacama Desert in northern Chile, considered by many to be the driest desert on Earth. Well, parts of it received 32 inches of snow last month.

32 inches! That's a lot of snow for somewhere that isn't the driest place on the planet. Annually, the desert gets about 2 inches of rainfall, and some parts of the desert have never received any rainfall, at least as long as people have been measuring that sort of thing.

A few weeks later, the Chilean city of Lonquimay in the east-central region received up to 9 feet of snow. The July 17-20 event was the worst in 30 years, according to the Chilean president. About 6,500 rural residents were isolated because of the snowfall.

The average high temperature in northern Chile is about 72 during June, July and August. Just before the snow, the temperature in Santiago--also near the country's midsection--dropped to 18 degrees.

If this is 2011's weather so far, I can't wait for the rest of it...

--Jerry Wofford

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Clive Ashworth (last year)

this will have implications for the electric car and lithium battery industry. With so many companies focusing on this area for lithium brine exploration and production, ignoring opportunities in the USA.

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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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Temperature
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Low Temp:	(Example: 45)
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Precipitation
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Month to date:	(Example: '.01)
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