Winter weather and precipitation info from Gary McManus, Oklahoma Climatological Survey

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February 27, 2013  February 27, 2013  February 27, 2013  February 27, 2013  

Meltage

Temperatures rose above freezing yesterday across northwestern Oklahoma.

http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20130227/yesterday.TAIR.max.grad.png

And forecast to go above freezing today.

http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20130227/wednesday-highs.png

That, along with the nearly-March power of the sun, has sped up the melting of
the snowpack up in the northwest, making it seem as though that area continues
to get rainfall on the Mesonet rain total maps. That’s why you see up to a half
an inch of rain across some parts of the state, but no radar estimate overlay.
The “rain” occurred over two days ago.

http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20130227/rainrfc.24hr.png

It’s the gift that keeps on giving! Of course, it was something of a lump of coal
in the stocking, leaving tens of thousands without power and an entire section
of the state paralyzed. The statewide average for February is up to 2.99 inches,
which would rank as the 12th wettest on record. Moving up the ranks!

Some amazing snow totals from up that way, however, thanks to the consecutive
snowstorms. Alva, for instance, came within inches of breaking the monthly
snowfall total for the state. The NWS COOP observer located one mile west of
Alva recorded 35.6 inches of snow for the month thus far. That’s about 4 inches
away from the all-time record of 39.5 inches from the best place in the
universe, Buffalo, set back in February 1971.

All records owned by Buffalo will remain forever, even if I have to grab a
hair drier and a 100-mile long extension cord. Seriously though, that was a
close one.

More importantly, that snow, along with a bit of rain, amounted to 4.95 inches
of liquid moisture for the Alva area. THAT is a drought-denter right there,
and the bulk of it will be able to moisten those soils as it slowly melts.
Combine that with the 0.82 inches from January and they have a grand total of
5.77 inches for the January-February period.

We will patiently await the next storm system for further help. The CPC insists
it’s coming sometime about 8-14 days from now.

http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20130227/8-14-precip-outlook.gif

Maybe just a hint of that showing up on the 7-day HPC rain forecast.

http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20130227/7day-rain.gif

That’s okay. We’re patient. We can wait.

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