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...and the livin's easy
Published: 6/19/2012 5:57 PM
Last Modified: 6/19/2012 5:57 PM

McClure Pool, located at 7440 E. 7th St., opened for business on the first weekend in June for the 2012 summer season. KT King/Tulsa World

At the cookout I went to Sunday evening, it was tank top, cutoff jean shorts and flip flops. My friend said to me, “you look like summer.”

I certainly felt like summer in the hot, humid afternoon despite it still technically being spring.

When it comes to seasons, the few days before a season change fall into the category of “close enough.”

But as of 6:09 p.m. Wednesday, it will officially and legally (I guess?) be summer.

Wednesday is the Summer Solstice, when the Earth is at the point in its orbit that the northern hemisphere most directly faces the Sun. It is the point when the Sun is furthest north in sky and is the longest day of the year.

This is opposed to the other season changes on the equinoxes and winter solstice (equinoxes in the fall and spring when the Earth is equidistant from the solstices and winter being the opposite of summer solstice, obviously)

While we haven’t seen the highs we had last year, it’s been pretty consistently in the 90s for several days this month, which is just a bit warmer than average, as Althea mentioned yesterday.

But as summer marches on, the temperatures march up. How high can we expect? Well, the Climate Prediction Center’s most recent outlook says pretty high.

Like a bull’s-eye in the middle of the country, above-average temperatures are highly likely over the next six to 10 days, with the trend continuing out for the next two weeks, though it isn’t as pronounced.

The precipitation chances aren't that much more encouraging.

The forecast calls for temperatures to flirt with 100 in the next week, which will be a first for 2012.

I always look forward to summer, but that’s usually during spring and winter and before it’s too hot to even look outside. And in late summer, I can’t wait for fall and winter. Maybe it’s wanting what I can’t have, or the desire for what’s to come, never being fully satisfied?

But this year, so far, I am living summer. Pooltime and sitting outside on patios and sunshine. It’s fantastic.

How do you enjoy the summer? Let me know your favorite summer activities in the comments, or give me a shout over on the Twitters.

As you lament the heat wave that will eventually arrive, grab a cold drink and a fan and head to the porch with me to enjoy those summer nights with a little help from Ella and Gershwin. It’s summertime.

--Jerry Wofford

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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)
Temperature Date:	(Example: 1/1/2011)

Precipitation
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Month to date:	(Example: '.01)
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