Tulsa's Second Winter Storm Could Break 1924 Record

Ashli Sims, News On 6

TULSA, Oklahoma -- This latest round of winter weather could break an 87-year-old record.

2011 is already down in the history books for the most snow in a 24-hour period.

2/1/2011 Related Story: Blizzard Brings Record Snowfall To Tulsa

As last week's snowflakes fell, the winter of 2011 kept rising in the record books. This February is now the snowiest one on record, with almost 17 inches.

An amazing statistic for a city that three decades ago didn't even get into the business of clearing snow.

"When I first started with the city, we did not have one, single snow plow," Paul Strizek said.

Paul Strizek has been with Public Works, since the late 1970s.

"In 33 years, you tend to forget a few things. Given the factor of the amount of snow, the wind, and the temperature, this is the most significant storm that I can remember," he said.

This storm isn't just making an impression in our memories. It's within striking distance of the snowiest month in Tulsa ever, a record that has been in place since 1924.

That was before the idea of the Mother Road, Route 66, was even born. Tulsa was buried under almost 20 inches of snow that March.

1994 is another big storm that has a place in our collective memory. That storm hit the city hard.  The heavy, wet spring snow split trees, snapped power lines and put more than a thousand folks in the dark.

Now it's not only a distant memory, but it's been replaced in the record books.

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