Gary McManus, Oklahoma Climatological Survey about the snow in areas of Oklahoma and cold temperatures

By Gary McManus, Oklahoma Climatological Survey:

There were some reports of upwards of 3 inches of snow in the Arbuckles – enough to shut down the highway there for a short time with more than 40 accidents reported from that area. A few flakes were seen in central Oklahoma as well.

Other than that, the big story is the cold. Temperatures continued to plunge overnight after yesterday’s big frontal passage. Temperatures remain below freezing across most of the state with wind chills in the single-digits to teens.

The Oklahoma Panhandle saw lows dip to near zero. Hooker wins the prize on the Mesonet with a low temperature of 1 degree.

That’s the lowest temperature recorded on the Mesonet since Christmas Day in 2011 when Kenton fell to 0 degrees. Before we start to declare a bone-chilling winter back in the works, we should remember what happened last December. It had already reached as low as -6 degrees in the Panhandle by this time last year (-6 degrees at Kenton, Dec. 6, 2011). But this is easily the coldest air we’ve seen this season, and probably since a year ago December.

The wind chills last night were no walk in the park either, and if you were walking in a park, you could probably confirm that. Those apparent temperatures dropped to less than -10 degrees in the Panhandle and close to zero across much of northwestern Oklahoma.

The air will now start to quickly modify and we’ll see a warm up over the next few days. Lows will dip into the teens tonight and we’ll see highs in the 50s and 60s by Wednesday and Thursday.

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