And THIS is "The Tooth Fairy!" I hope you all get that reference. I really do. Courtesy/2010 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation and Walden
When you think of Oklahoma weather if you're not from Oklahoma, all you need to see if my high school yearbook comments:
"Don't get sucked up in a twister."
"Look out for tornadoes!"
Even earthquakes are starting to becomes more synonymous with Oklahoma, but snow?! We're too far south, right? We're practically in Texas at this point, and Texas is, like, hot, right?
Having experienced snow every winter growing up, I have gotten used to seeing everything covered in a white blanket. Of course, every small rural area has its own fleet of snow plows in Wisconsin. Here? Well, it can lead to some humorous commentary, as Tulsa World's own cartoonist Bruce Plante shows:
Would you believe that the weather service actually has a special page dedicated to Christmas weather information in Tulsa? Check it out
here.
The most snow Tulsa has ever had fall on Christmas was 1.3 inches in 1975. More recently, Tulsa has had trace amounts of snow in 2010 and 0.4 of an inch on 2009.
As the weather service notes, 2009 truly did have a "White Christmas," with about 6 inches of snow on the ground that holiday. Enough to make you want to chuck Bing Crosby's song out the window?
Leaving politics out of this, February's record snowfall will be something that Tulsa talks about for years to come. When 14 inches fell from Jan. 31 to Feb. 1, that was bad. When temperatures rose enough to melt the snow during the day only for it to freeze overnight, that was worse. When yet another snowfall came a week later to the tune of 5.2 inches on Feb. 9, it was time to call off school again.
Tulsa received 22.5 inches of snow that February. We've had 26.1 so far this season. That's enough to make this Wisconsin native just a tad bit nervous.
It is also worth noting what other areas outside of Tulsa were enduring. A new Oklahoma record for most snowfall in a 24-hour period was set in Spavinaw on Feb. 9 (27 inches). From Ponca City to Chelsea to Fayetteville, Ark., snowfall amounts from Feb. 8-9 were 12 to 18 inches to the west, and 18 to 25 inches to the east.
It was also a time for extremely cold temperatures. In Nowata, the lowest temperature ever recorded was set on Feb. 10 (minus-31 degrees). Bartlesville recorded a low of minus-28 degrees. Tulsa was minus-12 degrees.
--Althea Peterson
PS: Want to know more about these snow 'toons? Check out Bruce Plante's blog
here.
