Stormy Pre-Christmas Weather

14 years ago

There's all sorts of weather watches out for the weather between now and Christmas. What kind of a gift is that?

There's a flash flood watch for some eastern or southeastern counties and, Diane, that includes y'all there in your county.

There's Winter Storm Watches and such. There's a chance that some of us will have severe thunderstorms and others may have snow (or perhaps ice).

We need the rain, but I'm hoping oher potentially dangerous weather doesn't materialize as forecast.

I've linked the Enhanced Weather Page below. It updates constantly so you can get the latest available info from the NWS there at any time. You can click on any county on the map at the bottom of the page to get current data and the forecast.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: NWS Enhanced Weather Page

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Comments (10)

owiebrain
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Thanks, Dawn. Yep, I saw that alert and we're keeping an eye on the updates. Sure would be nice if we could have a white Christmas for once instead of a muddy one.

The rest of you be careful out there if you have to be out & about. Even if your roads don't get slick, drivers are often distracted this time of year.

Diane
littledog
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Dawn,
Just wanted to say thanks for the updates and the links. We don't have broadcast reception here, and I flat out refuse to pay for TeeVee, so after standing outside myself to see how hot or cold or wet or dry it is, the internet is my main source of weather information. It should please you to know that if I need to know about changing weather or upcoming trends, I come here and look for your latest post. Yes, you are that reliable. :^)

Whatever the weather brings, I hope your holidays are merry and bright.
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Nancy, Y'all have had quite a bit of cool weather already, and I think that helps the rosemary because the cooler weather has hardened off the rosemary to gradually cooler weather (or, at least, this is how it is supposed to work). The years in which I've lost rosemary were ones where the autumn stayed flat out hot forever, and then the first cold spell hit hard in December like a tornado flying across the plains, and the rosemary could not take the sudden change from very warm weather to intensely cold weather....like, 70 degrees one day and then 18 degrees the next night, with worse temperatures following after the 18 degree night. The only other time I've lost rosemary was in a winter that was very cold/very wet and the soil just stayed too wet for the rosemary for months. 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Jennifer, All southern peas count towards fulfilling the Good Luck requirement. I've lived in the south all my life, and it never has matter which southern peas you ate for good luck, as long as you ate southern peas. When we lived in Fort Worth, our next-door neighbor, a lovely woman in her 70s/80s got together with a bunch of people from her church every New Year's Eve and they ate southern peas right at midnight for good luck. They said if you weren't eating them at midnight to welcome the new year, you wouldn't have good luck. We've always just waited and had ours at noon on the 1st. It probably is a silly custom, but it doesn't hurt to eat the peas, so why not do it? Amy, Uggh. I wouldn't have been able to eat oyster stew again either after finding that big wad of hair...and I don't want to think about where the hair might have come from. Tim is outside making a shelter for a feral kitty who's been hanging around, and we've been feeding it this week and trying to tame it. 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cjlambert
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Dawn, we've had off and on-again thunderstorms today, and are expecting the temps to drop drastically tomorrow. Don't remember the last time we had snow at Christmas.

But, I've enjoyed the thunder today. Managed to get the last of the pansies potted up during the storms, which I've been putting off too long.

Happy Holidays Everyone!
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
Original Author
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Hi Everyone!

I have so much weather news I hardly know where to begin.

Diane, You're welcome. I was hoping you were watching, especially when they issued the tornado watch. (It was east of me and might have been just south of you.) I've seen one image on our news of a wall cloud trying to drop a funnel over Johnston County, but it never came own to the ground.)

Littledog, When we first moved here, we had no cell service, no internet service and could only pick up one TV station (sometimes, but not consistently), so I had to learn to listen to the NWS radio to get my weather. Well, that and I watched the skies a lot. LOL Technology finally arrived here....first they paved our road, then we got dial-up internet (and later even wireless internet service), then a cell tower put in, and finally better TV reception. I now feel like we are practically living in the 21st century here.

I try to always watch and post weather updates because I know some of our members have the same types of internet/cell phone/TV access issues we used to have. People may think America is fully wired coast to coast, but I know lots of remote areas right here in OK where cell phone and internet service and TV reception are spotty to nonexistent.

I'm glad to know the updates are useful to you, Little Dog. Thanks for the holiday wishes. I think my holidays will be grand, though snowy and windy. (more detail below)

CJlambert, I think you're going to have that white Christmas! (Or, at least, my local TV meteorologist thinks so and I believe him.)

I watched those storms on radar as often as I could. I spent most of my day hauling tons of jars of pickles, pickled jalapeno peppers, sweet fruit jellies, and spicy pepper jellies out of the root cellar (tornado shelter). Then I wiped the layer of dust off of them, packaged 4 jars to each gift bag, along with tissue paper and curly ribbon, and made DH 45 gift bags to take to his co-workers and employees tomorrow. Today was the day that all the hot summer afternoons of canning paid off because I went "Christmas shopping" in my cellar. LOL

Have you ever had thundersnow? (Also known as convective snow showers, I think, if you want to get all technical.) We've had that here a couple of times. It is just like a thunderstorm with thunder and lightning, but with snow instead of rain. We've also had thundersleet before. Oklahoma has the oddest weather!

Now, y'all, here's the south-central OK weather update. Today's forecast high of 68 ending up being 74 at our house and 71 at our mesonet station. Those kinds of hotter than expected days ahead of a severe cold front almost always bring us a fast and wicked drop in temps, naturally, since the temperature has so far to fall.

Tonight we'll only get down to 39 degrees, and we won't get down to freezing here until late tomorrow afternoon. However, we've been told to expect snow, and probably accumulations of 1-3" on Christmas Eve. We'll also have strong wind, so some blowing snow.

Now, I'd love to have a snowy Christmas Eve and/or Christmas Day. Unfortunately, that kind of weather usually keeps our firefighters out working wrecks all day and all night, but we'll just cross our fingers and hope that doesn't happen.

So, is the snow going to hit y'all? Will it hit us? Is "my" weatherman cruelly giving me false hopes of a white Christmas? Who the heck knows!

So, just in case the snow and wind hit and we lose internet service or power or whatever (not that I think we will, but you never know), I want to wish each and every one of you and your families a happy, merry and splendid Christmas! I hope Santa brings everyone just what they're hoping for.

Dawn

P.S. Even though the Tulsa NWS Page is not as enhanced as the Norman NWS page, I'm going to link it below so those of you in that area can have a quick look at your own map. Remember that these linked NWS pages update constantly so check them as needed!

P.P.S. OK, I linked it and all I can say is "Wow! Y'all sure do have a lot of pretty colors on your map." LOL I hope all of you in the tornado watch area do NOT have any tornadoes or other severe weather.

OK, I have to get off the computer for a while and finish those last 8 gift bags before I call it a day. I'll be back later.

Here is a link that might be useful: Tulsa NWS Webpage
elkwc
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I watched my critters last night and again this morning along with looking at the satellites and decided it was safe to head out to Amarillo. We had maybe a half inch here when I left. Was dray after the first 40 miles all the way to Amarillo. They moved me to the front so I could head home. Thought about doing some shopping but by the time I got out was snowing heavy and hard. By the time I got 4 miles north of town it quit. Then heard the path had changed and went south and hit Lubbock and Plainview. And that Amarillo might get 3 inches. They are now saying ours is probably over unless something changes. Guess OKC may get hit. Hope everyone out traveling has a safe trip. Bundle up and stay warm as the cold it coming down they say. Our Christmas won't be very whit. Jay
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
Original Author
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Jay,

They've recently updated the forecast and it seems more and more likely we'll be having your snow. LOL I hope it goes south or north of us. At six they said the storm would head right for us, but on the 10 p.m. news they are saying it may pass between us and Dallas. I guess it will do whatever it will do no matter what 'they' say. They've issued a winter weather watch for the counties directly across the river from us. Since our part of the county sticks down into one of those counties, I think we might get a little of something if they get it in Cooke County, Texas.

I'm glad you made it to Amarillo and back safely.

Dawn
elkwc
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Dawn from now on I'll be posting Jay's Critters forecast when they predict a major weather change. LOL. More accurate than the forecasters. I kept telling myself they sure don't act like a major storm in coming. Mother Nature has a way of preparing the critters. The birds will be really eating and the horses will eat heavy 12-24 hours before and then be real frisky just a few hours before. So be watching for Jay's Critters Forecast in the future. Jay
soonergrandmom
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Jay, you are too funny. You will probably be closer to right, however. I always notice the birds feeding heavy just before a storm comes.

We had a large storm last night. Only a little over half an inch of rain, but VERY loud thunder. The wind was blowing and the rain just came in heavy burst. Then it would almost stop for awhile, they burst again. I didn't get much sleep.

Tonight (midnight) we are at 54 degrees and the forecast is for 17 for tomorrow night and a 100 percent chance of rain or snow for tomorrow. Sounds nasty, doesn't it?
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
Original Author
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Y'all are so entertaining!

I think I'm gonna have my White Christmas. I am looking at it on the radar right now, and even though it is raining here now, it soon will be snowing.

Jay, we had a gazillion birds yesterday so do you think they were trying to tell me something? I put out extra cracked corn, hen scratch and sunflower seeds in little piles in the driveway so all the birds could eat all they wanted and store up some energy for the cold weather. The deer, who normally don't come that close to the house in daylight, kept trying to come eat the birdseed but the silly humans who live here kept walking outside and scaring them off. So, if having deer 25 feet from the house eating bird seed is a weather indicator, well, there they were.....

I planned ahead and bought rawhide bones for all 8 of the dogs so they'd have something to keep them busy while they're stuck in the house or barn/garage most of the time. They're allowed to stay inside if it is raining, but when the rain changes to snow, they'll want to go out and play in it....just like kids.

I'm gonna start a new weather thread for today! (And I am going to go do it right now.)

I guess I need to get busy cooking in a few minutes. Tim will have to take the turkey and ham (for tomorrow's Christmas dinner at work) with him when he leaves the house this afternoon. If it does indeed snow, he won't drive home tomorrow morning....he'll stay at the airport and try to sleep in a conference room or in an extra bed at one of the fire stations. I think he's in for a long day or two beginning late this afternoon.
Dawn
elkwc
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Dawn yes they were trying to tell you something. When we lived on the ranches I was taught to use the livestock and nature to predict weather. We had no TV where we lived on one of them and radio reception wasn't good especially during bad weather. If school was in session then we heard things there if not you used what your surroundings told you. I can remember my uncle listening to an old weather man every evening at 6 and his last name was True. And he would say it should be false. And my Uncle would say that isn't what the animals are saying. In areas that have canyons ect. Watch the animals will move to them before a storm arrives.

Carol glad you find me funny. Most find me something but not usually funny. LOL.

Hope everyone has a safe and beautiful Christmas. And for some it might be a rare white one. Enjoy it. Jay

Stormy Pre-Christmas Weather

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