The Cold That Holds

Much of the nation woke up this morning to temperatures well below freezing (32 degrees): Minneapolis, MN (-8 degrees); Tallahassee, FL (32 degrees); Pittsburgh, PA (18 degrees); Austin, TX (32 degrees); Phoenix, AZ (30 degrees). North, South, East and West. Almost no one was spared from Old Man Winter's cold grip.

The official low temperature recorded at Tulsa International Airport this morning was 15 degrees. That's one cold morning! So cold, in fact, it got me wondering when was the last time Tulsa was this cold? I scrolled back through page after page, month after month of climate data; all the way back to January of this year before I found comparable numbers.

Here is how this morning stacked up to other cold mornings this year:

1. January 10, 2010 ; 3 degrees

2. January 8, 2010 ; 5 degrees

3. January 9, 2010 ; 6 degrees

4. January 7, 2010 ; 10 degrees

5. January 4, 2010 ; 12 degrees

6. January 5, 2010 ; 14 degrees

7. December 13, 2010  ; 15 degrees

This morning was the seventh coldest morning so far this year! Furthermore, averaging the daily temperatures so far for the month of December equates to us being 3.7 degrees BELOW normal. This wasn't just a bitterly cold morning, but it is turning out to be a fairly cold month. If long range computer guidance is correct, and also taking into account various ocean/atmospheric oscillations, the second half of December could finish out below normal as well.