Dick Faurot's Weather Blog: Records Being Set

Where to begin? Guess we’ll start with the events of the past 3 days; record rainfall has resulted in record river levels in some cases and flooding in many others.

Notice the rainfall totals over the course of the last 3 days, courtesy of the OK Mesonet, and you can see that Tahlequah, for example, has received nearly a foot of rain over that time span. Here in Tulsa, we set daily records for Sat/Sun and our total for the month now stands as the wettest December to date on record with a total of 8.60”.

However, this will not go down as the wettest full month of December as the 8.70” that fell in 1984 will likely maintain its grip on the record book.

Not only that, but this is by far the wettest year on record for the state as a whole, according to the good folks at the OK Mesonet. Notice the map showing the statewide rainfall totals and the 80+ inches that has fallen in some of the SE counties is remarkable. And to think, at one time during the late summer they were in a serious drought.

As for the official record in Tulsa, this year will go down as the third wettest on record as we now stand at 61.79” and little if any additional precipitation is expected before the New Year arrives. The years for Tulsa that exceed this year are 1973 at 69.88” and 1915 at 62.82”.

One more thing about this December that is remarkable is that, through Sunday, it has been the warmest December to date; of course, the much colder conditions today and for the rest of this week will change that standing. Also, today happens to be the record latest date for a killing freeze which is defined as a temperature of 24 degrees or colder for the season. We have yet to get that cold this fall/winter so we will also break that record as we are not expected to be that cold by midnight tonight.

However, tonight should be the coldest night of the season with a killing freeze finally occurring here in Tulsa, as you can see on our forecast page. Not only that, but it is finally going to feel like winter for the rest of the week with morning lows generally in the 20s and daytime highs in the 30s gradually reaching into the 40s by the coming weekend.

Clouds will be the main wild card regarding temperatures over the Tue/Wed time frame as another system aloft will be quickly moving across the state. It will not have much to work with and is much weaker than what we just experienced but should still wring out some light snow or flurries, primarily over the more NW counties where a dusting may occur by Wednesday morning.

We do expect to see lots more sunshine for the latter part of the week into the following weekend as a much more stable weather pattern will prevail. As you can see on the 7-day QPF map, we should be high and dry through that period with the possible exception of a light dusting for the NW counties mentioned earlier.

Beyond that time frame, the 8-14-day outlook returns us to a more typical winter time pattern with temperatures running at or perhaps below normal. Also, this El Nino pattern may spread another storm system our way during that period so will likely see a more active pattern develop again after the first of the year.

In the meantime, stay tuned and check back for updates.

Dick Faurot