Elisha Green, of Tulsa, but who grew up in Chicago, clears snow from her windshield, near Country Club Drive and West Edison Street, amidst cold and snowy conditions in Owen Park, on Monday, Feb. 13, 2012. "Look at the streets. They are clear," she said. "I don't know why they cancelled school today. This wouldn't happen in Chicago." CORY YOUNG/Tulsa World
I don’t even know what’s happening anymore, folks.
Two weeks ago, it was near 70 degrees. Three days ago, it was the coldest temperature of the season (16 degrees.)
On Monday,
it snowed. Today, it was near 50 degrees with thundershowers in the morning.
If you’re afraid of change, you must be cowering in a closet, wrapped in blankets—then throwing them off—and sobbing.
Last week, I said I might owe the groundhog
an apology for the bologna about a longer winter. That was when the snowstorm was looking a little more substantial and temperatures were forecast to hit 12.
Well, a weekend is not six weeks. You’re still a cheat and a liar, you groundhog.
Anyway… I have a surprise for everyone! It’s good news!
La Nina is starting to weaken! That’s right, that cool pool in the Pacific Ocean is starting to trend toward normalization.
As we’ve said before,
La Nina is the cooling of waters in the Pacific that, remarkably and through the wonders of physics, affects weather across the globe.
The NWS Climate Prediction Center’s latest
La Nina advisory: “La Niña is likely to transition to ENSO (El Nino/Southern Oscillation)-neutral conditions during March-May 2012.”
WOO HOO!!! WE DID IT!!! CUE THE CONFETTI!!!
La Nina has been affecting our weather since about mid-2010. It dissipated a year ago before ramping up again in the late spring/early summer.
In the southern United States, La Nina makes our weather warmer and drier. Hence:
record heat and
devastating drought.
The waters will start to warm up between now and May. But, it could still affect our weather through then. The most recent
climate outlooks from the Climate Prediction Center are in, and it doesn’t look awful, for a change.
The rest of this month could actually be kind of normal, if not even on the cold side. The longer outlook from CPC is a month old now, but it still calls for above average temperatures, but equal chances of normal precipitation in the eastern side of Oklahoma and slightly drier in western Okla.
With that somewhat cheery outlook, it’d say all of those afflicted with cainotophobia (look it up) who have suffered through the years of abnormalities, the reign of the average is on the horizon.
--Jerry Wofford
(Oh, and also: You should hop on over to Facebook and
like me. It'd be awful sweet of you.
