An Oklahoma Mesonet map of Sunday's (Jan. 22) top wind speeds statewide. Note the highest winds to the west and the lowest winds (but still quite high) to the east.
An Oklahoma Mesonet map of today's (Jan. 23) top wind speeds since midnight, as of 11:10 a.m. today. Note a reversal of yesterday, where the top winds are now mostly to the east.
The weather noise outside that freaked my dogs out last night was not an earthquake or a thunderstorm for once.
According to the Oklahoma Mesonet, winds across the state Sunday reached the red numbers category, as in, 58 mph or higher. The highest winds, 67 mph, were recorded at two Mesonet sites, in Cheyenne (far west-central Oklahoma) and Boise City (western Panhandle).
The closest Mesonet site to Tulsa, in Bixby, recorded 50 mph winds on Sunday. Here's some other area high wind totals from yesterday, according to the Oklahoma Mesonet:
Claremore: 42 mph
Copan: 43 mph
Hectorville: 50 mph
Inola: 43 mph
Jay: 36 mph
Miami: 39 mph
Nowata: 42 mph
Pryor: 40 mph
Skiatook: 41 mph
Vinita: 43 mph
The lowest max wind speed yesterday recorded by the Mesonet was 26 mph in Mount Herman (southeast Oklahoma). Other lower but still high winds were recorded in northeast Oklahoma.
But, much like storms move into new areas as time passes, this morning's highest winds are ... yes, in eastern Oklahoma, with the highest, 38 mph, in Sallisaw and Westville. So far today, Bixby's Mesonet site shows a high speed of 14 mph.
How typical are high winds in Tulsa County? The Oklahoma Climatological Survey's report on our county's climate had this to say:
"Winds across Tulsa County are predominantly from the south to southeast, averaging nearly 7 miles-per-hour."
Karen Hatfield, Tulsa National Weather Service meteorologist, said the NWS does not keep records of wind speed like it does for other weather factors such as rainfall, temperature, snowfall, etc. However, it is part of its daily climate data report. Thus, it's possible to view how windy it was each day. Here's the top five wind speed days for Tulsa in January so far:
Sunday (Jan. 22): 35 mph
Jan. 11: 33 mph
Jan. 15: 31 mph
Jan. 16-17: 30 mph
What does all of this wind mean? It means that warmer days don't feel as warm, unfortunately. The Oklahoma Mesonet offers more details on wind chill
here, but in a nutshell: Wind chill is calculated when the temperature is below 50 degrees and winds are greater than 5 mph.
What difference did it make in this morning's lowest temperatures? I have provided a fun gif to show the comparison:
(The lower, "apparent" temperatures are the wind chilled ones)
Mesonet notes, however, wind chill is something that applies only to humans and animals, not road surfaces or pipes.
--Althea Peterson
