Tulsa, nor the rest of Oklahoma, has had enough snow or cold weather this winter to put together an igloo village. This Wednesday photo shows a guest arriving at an igloo lodge set on a bench near the Nebelhorn mountain in Oberstdorf, southern Germany. The village of ten igloos hosts up to 30 guests in the winter months and supplies them with warm blankets and sleeping bags, so that they can spend the night there. LUKAS BARTH/AP Photo
Our state drought situation is not getting worse, and you can thank the cold temperatures.
As our previously warm February descends into a more typical winter month's temperatures (Thank the groundhog -- read Jerry's apology blog
here), the Oklahoma Climatological Survey's Gary McManus gave us a rundown of which days were the coldest in Oklahoma since November (statewide average temperature in degrees Fahrenheit):
Dec. 6: 24.7
Jan. 12: 28.5
Dec. 7: 30.3
Dec. 5: 30.7
Dec. 23: 31.9
Jan. 18: 32.3
Jan. 21: 32.7
Dec. 9: 33.7
Dec. 10: 33.8
Dec. 24: 34.2
So far, this winter is definitely warmer than last winter, as McManus points out that our coldest day this winter, Dec. 6, would have been the 11th-coldest last winter.
Just for fun, here are the coldest days (by temperature, not average of the entire day) in Tulsa, according to the National Weather Service:
Jan. 18: 17 degrees
Jan. 21: 18 degrees
Dec. 7: 18 degrees
Dec. 10: 20 degrees
Jan. 13: 20 degrees
Jan. 3: 21 degrees
Jan. 12: 21 degrees
Jan. 17: 22 degrees
Dec. 6: 22 degrees
Nov. 28: 23 degrees
Like the rest of the state, the coldest days were all before February so far. However, most of the rest of the state had its cold days in December, as opposed to Tulsa having a colder spell in January. Then again, I'm comparing statewide averages with one city's coldest temps of the day.
And now, the subtle drought report changes of the week. You're going to have to look hard to find these, so here's a few hints.
First, Don't bother looking at the white (no drought classification), yellow (D0 for abnormally dry) and dark red (D4 for exceptional drought) regions. Instead, look at last week's bright orange (D2 for severe drought) and bright right (D3 for extreme drought) areas and compare them with this week's beige (D1 for moderate drought) and bright orange areas.
And now, the answers in the traditional weekly gif image:
Just east of the Panhandle in northwest Oklahoma, the big storm of the past week that gave Tulsa 0.84 of an inch of rain can be thanked for providing a bit of drought relief.
As noted in
Tulsa's forecast today, more precipitation is possible (even sleet and snow) in the coming week, so we may see more improvement in next week's drought update. Stay tuned.
--Althea Peterson
