Rain and Snow to Return Later This Week

14 years ago

The lovely 'winter break' of sunshine and warmer temperatures is fading fast, but it was fun while it lasted, wasn't it?

The NWS office in Norman is forecasting rain in many parts of Oklahoma late this week with some of that rain likely turning to snow in colder parts of the state.

I hate to say it, but we need for the cold to return to keep the fruit trees from blooming prematurely.

You can see their map and brief forecast at the link below.

In addition, I've been reading some longer-term forecasts at various weather sites and it looks like a big cold wave will hit the USA in February, and in particular the eastern US and possibly as much as the easternmost 2/3s of the country. It is likely this cold wave will affect the southeastern US and probably our part of the country as well.

We knew winter wasn't really over, and Old Man Winter will be sending us the weather to prove it in a couple of weeks.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: NWS Norman Office Webpage

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Comments (15)

jeffinok
14 years ago
i keep telling myself winters not over dont plant seeds yet , dont plant seeds yet , dont plant seeds yet!!!
but the warm weather sure was nice!! thanks for the update dawn!
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susanlynne48
14 years ago
groan....grinch.....complain......cry......holler......sigh.....why, why, why........

Oh, well, guess I'll have to accept it!
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Diane, Oh, did you have to say the "f" word? LOL I am dreading the inevitable flooding too. The Red River is already pretty high for February and that doesn't bode well for spring. I don't think we'll get much if any snow this far south and if it does fall, I don't think it will stay around. Of course, after the great Christmas Eve blizzard, I suppose it will take a lot of snow to impress me. I wouldn't care if it snowed every day if we'd just get an hour or two of sunlight daily. Dawn
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FIRE: In looking at the NWS enhanced pages, I see that a Red Flag Fire Warning has been posted for many western counties--roughly those west of a line from Enid to Wichita Fall, Texas. Also, our "Fire Danger" for today has been upgraded from "very high to extreme" to merely "Extreme". Remember, if you are in the 13 counties in southern OK through east-central OK that have issued burn bans, your area is extra-dry (hence, the burn bans) and, in many of the southernmost counties, the KBDI numbers indicate that even LIVE fuels (plants) will burn if a wildfire starts. If wildfire is in your area, water your plants ASAP to help them resist the flames. With winds like we have today, wildfire can spread incredibly fast, burning through hundreds of acres per hour. ICE/SLEET/SNOW: The storm that is headed our way is already making trouble for the PNW, where wind gusts as high as 100 m.p.h. have been recorded. I'm dreading the arrival of the cold front and its' awful wind chill. In the attached link, there is a graphic that shows you what time the cold front is expecting to come across each section of Oklahoma. It is sunny, warm and gorgeous here today, and if it wasn't for wind gusting into the 40s, it'd be an almost perfect day. After almost a week without a significant fire, wildfire returned to our county yesterday, and today looks to be worse. I've been watering (today and yesterday), prompting DS to ask me "Are you trying to create a wetland?" Well, you know I am not, but the clay is so hard and dry that the water is ponding/puddling and only very, very slowly soaking into the ground. If wildfire hits our fire district today, almost all our firefighters are out of town for one reason or another and that worries me a lot. Whatcha gonna do, though? The weather will do whatever it will do. I'm tempted to sit on the chaise lounge and soak up some sunlight today and tomorrow before the cold front hits. I'm supposed to be planting daffs, but in this wind.....I just don't know. I bet I don't get much done, except for the watering, which is imperative at this point. I know OK is prone to wild weather swings but this is crazy. We're going to have highs in the 70s here in southern OK tomorrow, and in the upper 20s to lower 30s on Monday. Here's the link for the latest weather data--just click on any of the smaller graphics at the right to enlarge them. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Enhanced Weather Page
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impatience_7
14 years ago
Please, please just no ice.
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Okiedawn OK Zone 7
Original Author
14 years ago
Y'all, I really hated to post this gloom-and-doom forecast, but it has been so nice lately and I was worried someone might be outside looking at their garden this afternoon and might decide to go ahead and plant onions and peas or something.

Jeff, You're welcome. I try to always put significant weather updates online when I see them. As a gardener, I am constantly amazed at how much the weather here controls what we do (or what we can't do). I'm also telling myself not to plant seeds too early despite the urge to do so. Some of our members in the more rural areas don't have good local weather resources and are too far from a NOAA radio transmitter to pick up weather forecasts/alarms so I try to make up for that by posting important weather info.

Susan, It is ridiculous, isn't it? The warmer and sunnier days have been so nice. I wish they could have lasted longer.

Hi Imp! Haven't seen you on here in a while. I don't think any of us can guarantee 'no ice' but I sure hope any precip that falls is snow or rain instead of freezing rain or sleet. Personally, I'd be happy if nothing fell from the skies. We've been wet and muddy here for so long that I've forgotten what dry ground looks like.

Oklahoma would be a perfect place to live and garden if only we didn't have the most changeable weather in the world!

And slightly off-topic, but Jones has had another small earthquake today. That's about the fifth or sixth one in OK this year.

Dawn
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jeffinok
14 years ago
yeah i felt the last one shook the whole house !!! and im southwest of jones by atleast 5 miles
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melissia
14 years ago
Dawn,

Please just keep us posted on what you do in the garden -- I'm lucky enough to be close enough to you that I'm planting when you are ;- )

I'm trying to wait. . . I have my potatoes and onions and I am SO ready to get them in the ground - but I'm waiting.

Melissia
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owiebrain
14 years ago
I so did not want to read that. Stupid weather. To rebel, I did some wintersowing today. :-p

By the way, I'm one of those that can't get a NOAA signal here. My mother bought us one of those NOAA radios and I was so excited... and it won't get a signal. Argh. During severe storms, we're completely blind/deaf/dumb because both our TV and internet are satellite and they shut down during storms. Makes it interesting.

Diane
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elkwc
14 years ago
It is hard to tell here. I feel there is something around the corner but still leaning towards the 10th to 15th of Feb. Accuweather yesterday had us 26 on Thursday and a good chance of snow Wed night and Thursday. Now they have raised the temps to low to mid 30's and have removed the snow. NWS was 40 for Thursday yesterday and 20% chance of moisture. Then 30% this morning and now 50% chance. But the lowest temp I see on any of them is one night of mid teens and that is for the next 15 days. So not bad for this time of year. Even with the cold spell we've had a warm Jan with the over 2 weeks of warm up. Eastern KS has been hit hard. I'll be watching what Dan says but my feeling is we'll have another fairly cold blast in Feb. Once you get past the 20th of Feb our average temps rise fairly fast. Doesn't mean we can't have a 1-2 day blast but not a prolonged period. So far if we don't get blasted by a blizzard I feel good about this winter. Usually in a El Nino period we have milder temps and can have either rain or wet snows. Usually not as many Artic blasts. At least that is for here. Jay
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p_mac
14 years ago
Just heard the Sunday evening weather from the OKC KFOR. They're forcasting another major winter storm to hit here starting Thursday so they're warning us to get ready. Personally, I think they're the most dramitc forcaster we have here, so I don't pay much attention. When the other weather guys on the other 2 local channels start saying something similar...then I'll pay attention. Just hope I'm not already knee deep in snow by then...LOL!

btw - we've seen a MARKED increase in robins around here! And bluebirds!!! Might just be becux DH cut the sod on the new garden space and they're eating all my worms....

Paula
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Okiedawn OK Zone 7
Original Author
14 years ago
Jeff, Y'all have had too much shakin' and quakin' going on there in 2009 and 2010. I can see Jones making lemons from lemonade....they could come up with a new slogan like "Jones, Oklahoma.....We really rock!"

Melissia, Just stay tuned. I'll post when I start planting.

Diane, Your situation is one of the reasons I post weather extremes when they are in the forecast. And, by the way, if I know a really severe T-storm or tornado is headed your way, I will e-mail you in addition to posting. I worry about y'all when I see red on the radar heading towards you. Hopefully any warning I could send you would reach you ahead of the storm and before the satellites shut down.

Jay, Our forecast has changed twice today already and I haven't looked at it since I started this thread, so I'm almost afraid to go look and see what it says now. Undoubtedly it has changed. I think originally we were expecting rain and snow (only rain this far south) on Friday, but then they moved it to Thursday as Paula noted above. For our area, El Nino usually means extra rain and I'm about sick of rain. We haven't has a lot in 'inches' this month, but the ground is so saturated from the fall rains and the earlier snowfall that it just never dries up.

Paula, KFOR's forecast matches what the NWS was saying this morning, although I do think that pretty much all the media outlets hype the weather to some extent and scare people into expecting something worse than what is really expected.

I "think" the increased bird activity occurred because the weather was so nice, but then I also think I'm seeing a lot of 'new' birds coming in from the south and west. I do start seeing additional robins in late January of most years and they may be more or less migrating through. Some of the robins stay all winter, but then all of a sudden, it seems like we have 4 times as many as we had before.

I hope the Purple Martins are still hanging out down along the Texas coast. We wouldn't want them flying too far north too early.

If anyone wants to look at their long-term forecast, you can go to the websites for Accuweather for a 15-day forecast or to the website for the Weather Underground (Wunderground.com) for similar info. I look at both of them, our local TV station's website and the NWS websites and then try to make sense of what all 4 sources are saying....and, often, they are not in total agreement so then you don't know who to believe.

Dawn
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spademilllane
14 years ago
Dawn:

You're talking about indoor/greenhouse seeds or seeds outside?

Thanks,

Robert
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susanlynne48
14 years ago
News 9 here in OKC has us in the 50s for daytime highs Monday thru Thursday. Lows in the high 20s. May be some nasty nighttime precip, but daytime highs look like it won't stick aroumd.

I comparison shopped the weather stations over the last year, and Gary England and his crew (much as I think he is ready for retirement) are the most accurate of the 3 major stations. I love David Payne on Channel 4, just his personality, but they always seem to miss the mark. They have great stormchasers, though, including David.

It can and probably will change on the 10 p.m. news cast, so will have to check back later.

Susan
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p_mac
14 years ago
Susan - LOL! I agree with you whole-heartedly on our weather people. We mostly watch KOCO, but when it gets really nasty - we switch to Gary!

Dawn - we are such kindred spirits! I check Accuweather.com every morning for a most accurate forecast. Have for years. Weather.com is good too and you've also added to my list the NWS (right here in Norman where I live...DUH!) and the Oklahoma Mesonet. It takes about one cup of coffee every morning. =)

I agree we need the cold to hold off the budding on the trees. We haven't gotten anything from our wild plums in 2 years...and that makes me sad. Our pear trees just about are gone considering the last 2 winters.

Robert - I think she meant the indoor starting of seeds.

All this talk has reminded me I need to start a thread about the Spring Swap...maybe warm thoughts will keep us focused and planning. Is it too early to mark a date and start plans?

Paula
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soonergrandmom
14 years ago
Our corner of the state is the cool spot today, but it doesn't feel cool.....it feels cold. Our temp is 38 but the wind chill is 30. We are looking for 25 tonight with rain and sleet on Thursday and a night time low of 16 for Thrusday night.
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Okiedawn OK Zone 7
Original Author
14 years ago
Robert,

Yes, I meant inside/greenhouse seeds. There's a little tomato-red devil who sits on my shoulder all day long on sunny days and whispers to me that I should go ahead and start tomato seeds a couple of weeks early. Then, there's a sweet little garden angel who whispers in my ear that if I start seeds too early the plants will get too tall for the plant shelves and I'll have to carry the plants outside every day and inside at night. So far, the sweet little garden angel is winning but the 'plant seeds now' devil is still urging me to go ahead. This week's weather might chase that little devil away for a few days.

Carol, Our overnight low was 29 and I think our high is in the 50s, but the wind is high and the humidity is in the 20s. The counties on the Texas side of the Red River have a Red Flag Fire warning, which makes me a little nervous considering Texas is just a stone's throw away from me. (Well, it'd be a really long throw but you know what I mean.)

It felt much colder outside today that it was because of the wind. I guess by Thursday, we'll be wishing for today's weather to come back again.

Ice is in our forecast for Thursday in the form of freezing rain. I hope they're wrong. In fact, I really, really, really hope they are wrong.

Dawn
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