Dick Faurot's Weather Blog: : Happy New Year! A Cool But Dry Start To 2016

Since a rather stable pattern will dominate the days ahead, thought a brief look back at 2015 would be of interest.

To say it has been a crazy year is certainly an understatement. According to the good folks at the OK Mesonet, 2015 has shattered the statewide record for wettest year ever - breaking the old record set back in 1957 by almost 6” which is remarkable. Typically a record of that nature is only broken by much smaller increments. Notice the yearly rainfall map across the state, courtesy of the OK Mesonet, and the 80+ inches at some of the SE counties really stands out.

For December here in Tulsa, this was the second wettest and the second warmest on record. December capped a remarkable year which started off dry for Jan & Feb, marking a continuation of the drought conditions of the previous 5 years.

Then, it started raining, and we went from drought to flood in a relatively short time. Notice the graphic which clearly illustrates how exceptional this year has been relative to the last 5 years. By the way, for Tulsa, the total rainfall for the year is now the third highest on record behind 1973 and 1915 respectively.

Despite the near record warm temperatures for Dec here in Tulsa, the year as a whole turned out to be warmer than normal, but not by much, and was well down in the pack in that regard.

OK, that is where we have been; now let’s look at where we are headed. 2016 will be starting off on the chilly side but the stable pattern mentioned above will keep things very quiet for at least another week or so as you can see on our forecast page.

The troublesome clouds of the last few days have been the main forecast headache recently due to their impact on temperatures. However, indications continue to support those clouds finally thinning out for Friday and lots of sunshine for the weekend into early next week. Also, a weak pressure gradient means relatively light winds, so if those clouds clear out by morning we should be starting the day in the upper 20s for most locations.

With more sunshine and a light wind during the day, the New Year will get off to a pleasant start, although a cool one with daytime highs in the lower 40s. By the way, the normal temperature range at this time of year is 47/28 for the max/min.

A light W or SW wind and lots of sunshine should push Saturday afternoon to at or perhaps a bit above normal. Somewhat cooler air should then build back over us for Sunday into early next week, but this is not a particularly cold system.

As you can see on the 7-day QPF graphic, this looks to be a very wet period for the W Coast into the Southern Rockies as storm systems take a more southerly track. Eventually one of those systems will make it into OK, but that is not expected till along about late Wednesday or Thursday of next week.

In the meantime, we will have a stable weather pattern leading to a quiet start to the New Year.  So, stay tuned and check back for updates.

Dick Faurot