Oklahoma is No. 1
This week’s winter storm was record-setting for Oklahoma. And not for the right reason.
When President Bush signed earlier this week an emergency disaster declaration for all 77 counties, it marked the eighth time this year that federal disaster aid has been made available to public entities and citizens via a presidential declaration.
According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is responsible for responding to, recovering from and mitigating against disasters, no other state has had as many presidential disaster declaration in one calendar year.
“We’re just so disaster savvy, it’s scary,” Michelann Ooten, spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management, told The Associated Press.
FEMA spokesman Earl Armstrong told AP that most states don’t usually have to endure as many disasters as Oklahoma experienced in 2007.
Call it a badge of honor. Call it what you like.
Just don’t call it an award Oklahomans would have wanted to win.
Presidential disaster declarations for Oklahoma in 2007:
— Jan. 15: For severe winter storms and flooding throughout Oklahoma starting on Jan. 12 (emergency declaration)
— Feb. 1: For severe winter storm in three counties in the Panhandle from Dec. 28-30, 2006
— Feb. 1: For severe winter storms affecting 46 counties from Jan. 12-26
— June 7: For severe storms, tornadoes and flooding affecting 17 counties from May 4-11
— July 7: For severe storms, flooding and tornadoes affecting 29 counties from June 10-July 25
— Aug. 24: For severe storms, tornadoes and flooding affecting 22 counties from Aug. 18-Sept. 12
— Aug. 31: For severe storms, flooding and tornadoes affecting nine counties from May 24-June 1
— Dec. 10: For severe winter storms throughout Oklahoma starting on Dec. 8 (emergency declaration)
Source: FEMA
Brian Sargent
Staff Writer
Winter Not-So-Wonderland
There’s nothing like a disaster to bring out the spirit of cooperation and the chainsaws.
On Monday morning, crumpled parts of once beautiful trees blocked five of the six roads leading out of my neighborhood east of the
University of
Oklahoma campus in
Norman. One block in particular was a jumble of limbs, some as thick around as an oil drum. There, residents, at least one with a chainsaw, joined forces, working most of the day to untangle and clear their street.
On another street, I saw several people trying to clear the road of limbs with handsaws. I knew then that my chainsaw — that screeching two-stroker that had just helped clear my driveway and that of a neighbor of fallen oak tree limbs — must do its part. Returning with the saw after the others who were here had left, I hacked at the limbs blocking the street. Before I was halfway through moving them, another guy driving a pickup pulled up and began helping haul them to the side. Turns out he was considering buying a home in the neighborhood and had been just passing through that morning.
Most residents in this heavily wooded addition had their own adventures with falling limbs. Limbs landed on my roof, on the neighbor’s roof and on power lines connected to each of our houses. I helped the neighbor clear limbs from her power line and propped up supports beneath a giant cracked limb that had stretched but not severed my home’s power line. With each limb that leaped to its death, there were the same sounds. First there was the sharp, echoing pop that reminded me of cracking ice of glaciers in
Alaska, followed by the sound of falling ice and debris and the thud of whatever it landed on.
In my backyard, that was almost me. As I stood in front of a storage shed, a 35-foot cedar tree gave way and, fortunately, landed across the top of the shed instead of my head. My shivering at that point had little to do with the ice that showered down on me.
David Zizzo, Staff Writer
A cold night without electricity turned into a fun adventure for my grandsons, Chandler Walker, 14, and his brothers, Calvin, 9, and Cole, who turns 7 today. When the electricity went out in their Norman home and there was no dinner, my daughter Michelle Walker cooked a “campfire” dinner in the fireplace.
She used a cast iron skillet to make spaghetti, ground beef, and sauce.
The kids bundled up in extra clothes, and after dinner they roasted marshmallows on the fire.
“We had fun doing this, and the kids just loved it,” Michelle said. “We made a memory with this. We put batteries in the radio and listened to Christmas music.”
It was a relaxing family night, and they appreciated the quiet in a way they didn’t expect. A bath by candlelight was another adventure for the kids.
Chris Jones
I learned about 5:30 p.m. Monday that the electricity was off at the home of my 79-year-old mother in
Tulsa. She cannot see well enough to drive after dark, the roads were too slick for her to get out of her home to go elsewhere, and officials were predicting the power could be off for a week or more. So my wife and I decided to take the chance on the threat of icy roads and drive to Tulsa to “rescue” Mom and bring her back to
Oklahoma City, where our home still had power.
We saw a half-dozen salt trucks keeping the Turner Turnpike drivable during our trip. But the darkness and fog along the 90-mile stretch was eerie. All of the turnpike’s rest areas were dark, with only the parking lights of semi-trucks marking their locations. News accounts had indicated about 70 percent of
Tulsa was without electrical service, and the temperature was holding near freezing. Entering the outskirts of
Tulsa, pockets of light accented the darkened city. But most striking to me was that upon arriving at the edge of the city, heavy in the air was the smell of burning wood — it was as if all the residential fireplaces in
Tulsa must have been in use at the same time!
Don P. Brown, Features copy editor
Drought leaves tons of extra carbon dioxide in Atmosphere
A study, recently released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, states that a prolonged drought during 2002 in North America cut in half the continent’s natural uptake of carbon dioxide, leaving more than 360 million tons more of the heat-trapping greenhouse gas in the atmosphere. The amount not absorbed that year is equivalent to annual emissions from more than 200 million automobiles in the United States.
Scientists from NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory will present the aforementioned data this and other findings on the North American carbon cycle at a world carbon dioxide in Hawaii this week. The results are the first from a powerful data and modeling system called CarbonTracker, released earlier this year by NOAA.
The study presents the first objective estimate of net atmospheric carbon dioxide exchange across North America every week from 2000 to 2005. The estimate is based on 28,000 global atmospheric observations.
In North America, humans release each year 2 billion tons of carbon as carbon dioxide into the atmosphere through burning fossil fuels and manufacturing cement. Typically, forests, grasslands, crops, and soil absorb about a third of those emissions. The natural ratio was upset in 2002, when North America experienced one of the largest droughts in more than a century.
Conditions hovering over nearly 45 percent of the United States were classified as “extreme” or “exceptional.” The amount of carbon taken up by vegetation and soil plunged from an annual average of 650 million metric tons to 330 million metric tons.
NOAA is dedicated to enhancing economic security and national safety through the prediction and research of weather and climate-related events and information service delivery for transportation, and by providing environmental stewardship of our nation’s coastal and marine resources. Through the emerging Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), NOAA is working with its federal partners, more than 70 countries and the European Commission to develop a global monitoring network that is as integrated as the planet it observes, predicts and protects.
Brian Sargent
Staff Writer
Heat wave sets more than 1,000 records
A heat wave across the United States during September set more than 1,000 daily high temperature records, according to scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C. The record heat helped make September the eighth-warmest for the United States, according to preliminary data. The global surface temperature during September was the fifth-warmest.
Highlights released Tuesday by NOAA:
— The average temperature for September in the contiguous United States was 67.5 degrees Fahrenheit, 2.1 degrees Fahrenheit above the mean for the 20th century.
— A record high temperature at Raleigh-Durham (N.C.) International Airport, N.C., of 101 degrees Fahrenheit was set Sept. 10, the latest date during the year since 1944 that the maximum daily temperature reached 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
— More than 4.25 inches of precipitation fell in Anchorage, Alaska, in September, which made it the 12th-wettest and 1.43 inches above normal.
— The combined global land and ocean surface temperature for September was 0.92 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th Century mean and the fifth-warmest.
— The global surface temperature for September was the second-warmest.
Click to view “Climate of 2007 — September in Historical Perspective.”
NOAA, a scientific agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce, focuses on the conditions of the oceans and the atmosphere. NOAA warns of dangerous weather, charts seas and skies, guides the use and protection of ocean and coastal resources, and conducts research to improve understanding and stewardship of the environment.
Staff Writer
Same agency, new name
The National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration’s Space Environment Center will have a new name beginning Monday.
Space Weather Prediction Center reflects the rapidly-growing importance of solar storm forecast the nation’s well-being, NOAA officials said.
According to a press release, economies around the world have become increasingly vulnerable to the ever-changing nature of our nearest star. Solar-related geomagnetic storms can bring down power grids, interfere with high-frequency airline and military communications, disrupt positioning signals, interrupt civilian communications, and blanket the Earth’s upper atmosphere with hazardous radiation.
“The Space Weather Prediction Center is critical to our economy because each time we use a cell phone, check a GPS locator, or take an over-the-pole flight, space weather could have an impact,” National Weather Service director Jack Hayes said.
In addition to issuing critical warnings and forecasts of solar activity, the prediction center helps move the latest computer models of solar dynamics and sun-Earth interactions into the daily operations of space weather prediction. Scientists and forecasters work closely with government and university partners to develop prediction models and other tools for improving services to the nation’s space weather community.
Monitoring and forecasting solar outbursts in time to mitigate their impact on space-based technologies have become new national priorities. The center is the America’s official source of space weather forecasts, alerts, and warnings, and provides daily reports on conditions on the sun and within Earth’s space environment. Electric power grid operators rely on NOAA space weather products to mitigate grid damage and anticipate possible large-scale blackouts during geomagnetic storms. The U.S. military relies on similar forecasts from the Air Force Weather Agency to know if orbiting satellites have suffered natural effects or human interference.
NOAA, a scientific agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce, focuses on the conditions of the oceans and the atmosphere. NOAA warns of dangerous weather, charts seas and skies, guides the use and protection of ocean and coastal resources, and conducts research to improve understanding and stewardship of the environment.
Brian Sargent
Staff Writer
Heat wave sets more than 2,000 records
A heat wave across the United States during June, July and August set more than 2,000 daily high temperature records, according to scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C. The record heat helped make August the second-warmest and the summer season the sixth-warmest for the contiguous United States, according to preliminary data. The global surface temperature during June, July and August was the seventh-warmest.
Highlights released Thursday by NOAA:
— The average temperature for June, July and August in the contiguous United States was 73.8 degrees Fahrenheit, 1.7 degrees Fahrenheit above the mean for the 20th century.
— The average temperature for August in the contiguous United States was 75.4 degrees Fahrenheit, 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit above the mean for the 20th century.
— More than 30 record highs were set during the summer season.
— A record high temperature in Raleigh-Durham, N.C., of 105 degrees Fahrenheit was set Aug. 21. The temperature in Columbia, S.C., was at least 100 degrees Fahrenheit for 14 straight days, breaking a record of 12 straight days set in 1900. The temperature in Cincinnati was at least 100 degrees Fahrenheit for record-setting 5 straight days. It was the warmest August in 113 years for Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Utah.
— The combined global land and ocean surface temperature for August was 0.85 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th Century mean and the eighth-warmest.
— The global surface temperature for June, July and August (northern hemisphere’s summer season) was the seventh-warmest.
— Hurricane Dean, the first major hurricane of the Atlantic hurricane season made landfall near Costa Maya on Aug. 21 as a Category 5 storm. It was the first Atlantic Basin hurricane to make landfall as a Category 5 storm since Hurricane Andrew struck Florida in August 1992.
Click to view “Climate of 2007 — August in Historical Perspective.”
NOAA, a scientific agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce, focuses on the conditions of the oceans and the atmosphere. NOAA warns of dangerous weather, charts seas and skies, guides the use and protection of ocean and coastal resources, and conducts research to improve understanding and stewardship of the environment.
Brian Sargent
Staff Writer
Record temps dominate western U.S. in July
Last month there were record and near-record high temperatures in the western United States, but there were cooler-than-average temperatures in most of the eastern and southern United States, according to scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C.
Highlights released by NOAA:
— 46 percent of the contiguous United States was is a drought at the end of July. The global average temperature was the
seventh warmest July.
— Cooler-than-average water in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean reflected the possible development of a La Niña.
— The mean temperature for July for the contiguous United States was 74.3 degrees Fahrenheit, which was 1.43 degrees Fahrenheit above average for the 20th century and was 15th warmest since record-keeping began in 1895.
— It was the warmest July ever in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho. The average temperature in Boise, Idaho, was 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit, more than 9 degrees Fahrenheit above average.
— There were 11 days of triple-digit temperatures in Missoula, Mont., eclipsing the previous record of 6 days.
Click to view “Climate of 2007 — July in Historical Perspective.”
NOAA, a scientific agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce, focuses on the conditions of the oceans and the atmosphere. NOAA warns of dangerous weather, charts seas and skies, guides the use and protection of ocean and coastal resources, and conducts research to improve understanding and stewardship of the environment.
Brian Sargent
Staff Writer
