As usual we had A LOT more rain than did you, Dawn. Monday night we had a really big downpour along with a LOT of wind. The wind actually tore up the roof on one part of our barn. It rained, to differing degrees, through the night and into the morning. I didn't read the rain gauge yet, but judging by the buckets and wheelbarrow, I'd guess we got close to four inches.

I sure wish you could get the same weather, minus the high wind. I well remember, when we first moved here, and we went for over a year with very little rain. It was a terrible feeling, especially when the weather forecast said, day after day 20-30% precipitation, and none came.

Right now it is COLD! There is a dampness in the air along with a stiff breeze. It's probably in the 30s. But when I got up (and did chores) this morning, it was in the 20s.

George
Tahlequah, OK

George,

I just came in from feeding the poultry, and filling up the feeders for the wild birds, and my hands are still as cold as ice. It is still in the 30s here, but with wind chills in the 20s. I don't know if we will reach our forecast high of 45 or not.

I wish we were getting the rain y'all have been getting too. But, I am genuinely happy y'all are getting some rain. In this state, you never know when the rains will stop and stay away a while.

We did have the high winds, especially yesterday, when they blew hard all day and into the early morning hours. Southeast of us, a couple of counties away from us in Texas, they had wind damagee from at least two tornadoes and some downbursts that occurred Monday night. I don't think they had much rain with that wind though. You could see the stormy skies above Grayson County, Texas, from our house around 10 p.m. and we knew they were having a storm, but never dreamed it would be accompanied by violent weather.

It just amazes me that I can sit and watch the radar and see rain moving across Oklahoma and Texas....it is all over the place....but misses us. And, it isn't this way every year. For the first five years we were here, I remember prolonged dry spells for 2 to 4 months, but not the more persistent droughts like we've had periodically for the last 4 or 5 years. For example, even though our big pond dries up most years in Aug. or Sept. if we have a dry July-Sept., it promptly refills when the autumn rains begin falling. This year, there's been so little rain that the pond has not a drop of water in it.

Earlier in the year, the rainfall divergence map linked below had a lot more blue and green areas showing rainfall for the year to date to be above average. For the last couple of months though, the other colors that indicate area of varying degrees of average to below-average rainfall have been growing.

Since January is the month that the least rain falls in our county, and December is almost half over and no rain has fallen, I am not expecting improvement in the drought anytime soon.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful:

We had a thunder storm and lots of wind on Monday night. This morning (Wednesday) we had a light dusting of snow /sleet on the ground. We had a light dusting of snow last week.

We blew more insulation into our attic, and into the attic of the rental house, weekend before last. We've had so much work done up in our attic that the insulation we had up there had gotten smashed flat and pushed away from the edges. There was a definite draft at the big windows in the living room. I thought it was cold air coming off the glass so I stuck bubble wrap on the glass. It helps some but I could still feel a draft. We have those double-insulated windows and I couldn't tell where the draft was coming from. When they blew the insulation in, they said it was all pulled away from where the eaves are. No more drafts now. But I'm keeping my bubble wrap on, too.

We got an inch or two, a lot of it in the form of small hail. The wind was strong enough to frighten me a little, but no damage. The storm was fairly violent as it came through the Tulsa area and moved eastward. We are up to 33 today.

Every time the meteorologist shows the animated radar for the state as a whole, I look at Dawn's area. I feel for you, Dawn. I hope you get 50 inches next year and it start on Jan 1.

Y'all, thanks for all the weather updates. It amazes me that within a state the size of Oklahoma, we have some areas squeaking by on as little as 15" of rain a year while others get almost 70".

Guess what? I'm watching the evening news, and the Houston area has had sleet and snow today. See, it is falling everywhere but our house. LOL

Scott, I heard that there might potentially have been a tornado in the Tulsa area but haven't heard if that has been confirmed.

And, what in the world am I going to worry about and complain about when the drought here ends????? Probably grasshoppers and cucumber beetles. As Roseann Roseannadanna used to say on Saturday Night Live back when the show was young, "It's always something......"

We haven't had any really damaging hail here at our house in 6 or 8 years, but we had a horrible hail storm in our first, second or third year here. I think it occured in May and it completely shredded and destroyed almost all the plants in the veggie garden Since then, I really fear hailstorms, but they seldom hit us even when they are all around us. The worst hail I've ever been in personally--and it happened twice.....was baseball-sized hail. The first time, I was driving to work and, when I got to work, being 19 and stupid, I got out of my car and ran into the building. I'm lucky one of those large hailstones didn't hit me in the head and kill me. The second time, we were at a mall 7 miles from home and had to drive home (after the storm passed) in pitch-black darkness with trees and power lines down. The hail punched holes right through the walls, windows and roof of my parents' home....I mean holes big enough to put your fist through. For some reason, the D-FW area is very prone to having hailstorms with extremely large baseball to softball sized stomes. The largest hail we've had here has been golf-ball sized, and that was bad enough.

The real quandry I face if the rain keeps missing us is what to do about a spring garden. I am so obsessed by the moisture we aren't receiving that I check the soil moisture page on the mesonet and NWS pages daily and check the Drought Monitor pages pretty often too. Our fractionated water index isn't too bad (all things considered) at 10 cm, but the deeper you go, the worse it gets.

I'd like for our 2009 rainfall to be a repeat of 2004's--we had a lot of rain that year and I had tons of garden produce to eat, can, give away, etc. Unfortunately, I think that for me, 2009 will mimic 2008, although I hope I am wrong. It is a "gut feeling" and I hope I am wrong, but my gut feelings are usually spot-on.

Dawn

Dawn I hope your gut feelings are wrong as well. It is dry here too, but no where as dry as in your neck of the state.

We got a trace of moisture in our rain gauge (went out and bought one). I had my garden hose going all day Monday, while I was in the yard working. Then drained it in anticipation of the cold coming.

We could use some real rain here in Edmond too.

On the other hand, my daughter which now resides in my "not sold yet" house in Tulsa said she got a lot of rain, but there isn't a rain gauge there either.

Moni... who still needs to plant her daffs.

Hi Moni,

My gut feeling is that 2009's weather patterns will be similar to 2008's all over the state, with the following caveat: I think winter 08-09 will be colder than usual. So, that means colder than average and drier than average for the southernmost and panhandle counties and colder than average and wetter than average for everyone else. That's what I've been expecting for a couple of months now, but the lessening of rainfall in central OK kinda surprised me. And, you know, I could be 100% wrong.

My "gut feeling" comes from watching the weather patterns across the US week in and week out, and from reading what I can about La Nina and El Nino and understanding how they affect us here. Since La Nina tends to bring southern OK drier than average weather, I was hoping for a return to strong El Nino patterns, which brings southern OK more rainfall, but instead, we have a neutral La Nina. Sunspot activity is also greatly diminished--almost nonexistent this year, and that factors into what the weather does too--if you believe the folks who publish the Old Farmer's Almanac.

I've been waiting for Steve LaNore, the met at our local CBS affiliate to give us his prediction for southern OK's winter weather and he finally posted it on his blog either last week or the week before. I'll link it below and y'all can read his reasoning and predictions if you want to. For what it is worth, he pretty much agrees with me about what to expect here in southern OK....although his reasoning is built on science and probabilities and mine is mostly a gut feeling based on what little I know and understand about the weather.

I cannot begin to explain how dry it is here. I have been watering, and have the highest water bills I've ever had in the cooler months to prove it, but everything is still bone dry. Every day I make water puddles for the wildlife and they come to drink at them morning, noon and night including deer, rabbits, racoons, possums, coyotes, bobcats, field mice, voles, etc. Our dogs and cats are so used to all the wild critters being around that they pretty much ignore them. Well, the bobcats, racoons and coyotes mostly come after dark, and all my animals are in either the house, chicken or guinea coop, or barn/garage by then.

I feed the wild birds, and have more than ever before, including woodpeckers and flickers, blue jays, carolina chickadees, tufted titmice, etc. The crows, whom I've never been especially fond of, have become very territorial and have their own spot where I scatter grain for them. In return, they chase off every hawk, kite and kestrel that tries to lurk in the skies over our property. That's a good thing, because the predator birds will attack our poultry if given the chance.

And, for what it is worth, my daffs are still chilling in the extra refrigerator in the garage. It isn't that I have forgotten them or that I don't care.....it is just so dry. (sigh) The area where I am going to plant them is very sandy, and I need to till it up, rototill in some organic material and get them planted soon. If I stand there in that spot and pour a glass of water onto the ground, it beads up and runs off....the ground is so dry, it cannot soak in. So, I clearly need to water that area well for a few days before I plant the daffs. One year I didn't plant until Jan. and still had blooms in March.

Steve's blog entry with the forecast for colder/drier weather here in southern OK is linked below and I found it to be fascinating reading. It just amazes me how he looks at and analyzes everything that is going on and climbs out on a limb and makes a forecast. I need to read his later blog entries, but I am almost afraid to. I can see from the title he's talking about a Russian Bear and, somehow, I bet it means bad news for us. LOL

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: A Professional's Forecast for Colder/Drier