Mid-Afternoon Update October 31, 2008

Happy Halloween weather fans!  What a great weather day it is.  Current temperatures as of 3 pm are in the 70s and 80s across Oklahoma:

Winds are pretty light, and should stay that way through tomorrow.  Showers and thunderstorms are well to our east, with no threat of rain tonight:

For trick-or-treating, expect temperatures falling into the 60s and little if any wind.  The weekend will be dry and warm with highs in the upper 70s to around 80.  Winds will be light on Saturday, but there will be more of a southerly breeze on Sunday.

We’ll remain warm and windy for Monday and Tuesday.  Highs will be in the upper 70s with gusty south winds of 20-35 mph.

Plan on a cold front to move across the state on Wednesday with a chance of showers and storms central and east.  The west will likely be dry with low humidity, so the fire danger will increase to the high or very high category.  High temperatures behind the front will cool into the 50s for Thursday and Friday.

Rick

A Dry October…But What About November?? October 31, 2008

Well it has been a dry month.  This first graphic shows some mesonet rain totals for October.  The second one breaks down the details for OKC.  The second graphic uses the OKC airport data. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It has been dry…but boy has it been nice!!  We really did have a few fabulous days this month.  As for September.  The average rain for the month is 2.11 inches. Average Highs will start in the upper 60s but by the end of the month the average highs will be in the 50s!!  As for lows the average low for the beginning of the month is 44 and the average low for the end of the month is 33!! 

Here is an update to your Halloween Forecast as well. 

 

Have a Happy and Safe Halloween!! 

Sarah

The History of Daylight Saving Time October 30, 2008

(some of this text comes from a National Geographic article I found)

Daylight Saving Time is this Sunday at 2am. We’ll all set our clocks back an hour before we go to bed(Spring Forward, Fall Back). It means an extra hour of sleep on Sunday, but sunset will now come earlier in the day.

So why do this funky clock change? It does mean we have sunlight later in the day, is that the reason for it? Is it about energy? War? And why do some states not even participate? Let’s delve into Daylight Saving Time.

Most U.S. residents set their clocks one hour forward in spring and one hour back in fall. However, residents of Arizona and Hawaii—along with the U.S. territories of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, among others—will do nothing. Those locales never deviated from standard time within their particular time zones. Contrary to popular belief, no federal rule mandates that states or territories observe daylight saving time.

The idea of daylight saving was first conceived by Benjamin Franklin during his sojourn as an American delegate in Paris in 1784, in an essay, “An Economical Project.”  

In 1883 the U.S. railroad industry established official time zones with a set standard time within each zone. Congress eventually came on board, signing the railroad time zone system into law in 1918. Part of the Act of 1918 also legislated for the observance of daylight saving time nationwide. That section of the act was repealed the following year, and DST thereafter became a matter left up to local jurisdictions.

Daylight saving time was observed nationally again during World War II, but was not uniformly practiced after the war’s end. Finally, in 1966, Congress passed the Uniform Time Act, which standardized the start and end dates for daylight saving time but allowed individual states to remain on standard time if their legislatures allowed it.  A 1972 amendment extended the option not to observe DST to areas lying in separate time zones but contained within the same state.

The motive behind Daylight Saving Time was to adjust daylight hours to when most people are awake and about.”  Daylight Saving Time decreases the amount of daylight in the morning hours so that more daylight is available during the evening. Not everyone benefits from the change, farmers and others who rise before dawn may have to operate in the dark a while longer before daybreak.

Daylight saving time, however, can bring many benefits. Research has shown that more available daylight increases energy savings while decreasing the number of traffic accidents, traffic fatalities, and incidences of crime.

You may have noticed that last year Daylight Saving Time was extended. It now runs from the second Sunday of March until the first Sunday of November. This changes was part of the Energy Policy Act of 2005.

By the way……The official spelling is Daylight Saving Time, not Daylight SavingS Time.

Saving is used here as a verbal adjective (a participle). It modifies time and tells us more about its nature; namely, that it is characterized by the activity of saving daylight. It is a saving daylight kind of time. Because of this, it would be more accurate to refer to DST as daylight-saving time. Similar examples would be a mind-expanding book or a man-eating tiger. Saving is used in the same way as saving a ball game, rather than as a savings account.

Nevertheless, many people feel the word savings (with an ‘s’) flows more mellifluously off the tongue. Daylight Savings Time is also in common usage, and can be found in dictionaries.

If you’d like a complete history of Daylight Saving Time, I recommend http://www.webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/

Rusty

 

Looks Like The Spooky Weather Stays Away! October 30, 2008

Today looks like another beautiful day!  Highs will be in the mid to upper 70s across the state.  South winds will be rather gusty later today.  We could see them kick up to 25 mph later.  The front that was going to bring some dry air to the area for the weekend looks to now stall to the north.  Highs this weekend will be in the upper 70s.  Lows will be in the 50s.  Here is a look at what you can expect for Halloween!!

 

Sarah

The Only Thunder Will Be Downtown… October 29, 2008

We’ve gone dry.  Since the first day of September, Will Rogers World Airport has seen 2.22″ of rain.  The normal rainfall for that same time period is 7.34″, a difference of over 5 inches of rain. We haven’t seen rain in a week, and I just don’t see much, if any rain in the forecast for the next week…if not longer.

As I showed you earlier, here is the forecast jet stream pattern for this weekend:

You can see a big ridge over the central US.  This will bring us some very nice weather, with highs in the 70s and lows in the 50s.  Add in an extra hour of sleep, and this will be a perfect weekend!

You also notice a trough of low pressure over the northwestern US.  This will move east-southeast and will be in the Plains for Tuesday.  Here’s the upper air map for Election Day:

This upper trough will push a cold front into the state.

You notice in the upper air map that the main energy goes to our north.  That, combined with the fact that we won’t have a lot of Gulf moisture around means that there won’t be that much rain.  The better rain chances will be in northern Oklahoma, where the stronger lift will be.  Metro rain chances are 20% at best.

Looking long term, there will be another system 10-12 days from now.  This one should turn us colder, but again–I’m iffy on the rain.

Andy

Halfway to the Weekend October 29, 2008

This is my Friday…which is why whenever I see “Wednesday” on something, I do a double-take.  We are halfway to the true weekend.  It’s a busy one too, with Halloween on Friday night, the football games on Saturday and “fall back” on Sunday morning.  The good news is that the weather will continue to cooperate.

For those of you making plans, here are some forecasts.  We’ll start with Halloween:

The game in Stillwater:

The evening game in Norman:

And for everyone else:

Above is the upper air pattern.  We will have a ridge of high pressure in control for the weekend.  This will bring pleasant days, cool nights and will also continue our dry weather.  The storm that you note off the west coast–the dip in the jet stream–could increase the rain chances for mid-week.  I wouldn’t bet on it yet…

Andy

Updated Low Temperature October 28, 2008

Updating that official low temperature…the official low from Will Rogers came in at 31.  Here is the Freeze Warning area for tonight:

Temperatures will be warmer in the metro tonight…bottoming out in the upper 30s.

Andy

Game 5 and the Nor’easter–Updated October 28, 2008

**update–They won’t play tonight either.  They’re going to start again tomorrow.  It will still be cold, but the rain chances are much lower**

Previous post:

Last night, for the first time in the history of the World Series, a game was suspended due to rain.  Even to those who aren’t hardcore baseball fans, the details are a bit fascinating. 

The score was 2-1 Philadelphia, going into the 6th inning.  Philadelphia being up 3 games to 1 in the best of 7 series just needs one more win to win the series.  In the top of the 6th, in the middle of a steady rain on a field littered with mud and puddles, Tampa scored the tying run. 

It was at that point when the tarp was pulled out on the field and the rain delay began, ending up in the game being suspended.  So, when they pick it up, it will be 2-2 in the bottom of the 6th. 

What if Tampa hadn’t scored?  What if at the end of that inning the score was still 2-1? 

The regular season rules state that a game can be called an “official” game after 5 innings (4 1/2 if the home team is ahead).  And there were a few eyebrows raised, wondering if the World Series would have simply have ended had Tampa not scored and the rain would have kept coming down. 

I learned a few things from mlb.com today.  First, the commissioner of baseball guaranteed that the series wouldn’t end due to rain.  That was a necessary, smart move.  Second, had the game not made it through 4 1/2 or 5 innings, they could have restarted the game from scratch.  It would have been like it never happened.  That too could have been interesting because the pitching rotations would be out of whack.

The suspended game allows everyone to pick right back up where they left off. 

If you’re watching from home, it’s nothing more than an inconvenience.  I just started the video recorder so that I could see the rest if they did in fact resume play, then went on to bed.  MLB catches a lot of heat from the viewers at home for rain-delayed games.  For example, the game on Saturday night didn’t start until after 10pm on the east coast, well after bedtime for many people.  The question becomes–why don’t they just postpone the game until the next night?  

Everyone needs to remember the group actually in attendance.  I was working in Texas back in 2005 when the Houston Astros made the playoffs.  I had tickets to games 3 and 4 of the Division Series and game 5 of the NLCS.  Now, the Astros play in a dome, so it can rain all day, and that game will still be played.  But, for this example, let’s say they didn’t have a dome.  So, I drive in from three hours away, have hotel reservations, take time off work and spent a lot of money on tickets, and now it rains.  Ok, so they play the game the next day.  But–what if  I had airline tickets and *had* to go back, and possibly missed the game?  People from Philadelphia are flying into Tampa, people from Tampa are flying into Philadelphia to see these games.  You can’t control nature, but they do owe it to people to try to play if at all possible, of course without jeopardizing the safety of the players.

The storm that’s causing the trouble is a Nor’easter moving up the east coast.  Here’s the latest satellite image:

This is a healthy storm combining moisture from the Atlantic, and that cold air that we’re experiencing.  Winds are strong, and parts of central New York will see over a foot of snow.  Checking the wire, 25,000 people in northeastern Pennsylvania are without power due to heavy snow bringing down powerlines.  Part of I-80 in Pennsylvania and I-84 in New York state have been closed.  And there have been school closings and delays.

Incidentally, the forecast for Philadelphia for tonight:  40% chance for rain, west winds 15-25 and gusty, temperatures in the mid-upper 30s and wind chills in the 20s.  A bit of a shock for the Tampa fans who have traveled to Philly…

Andy

Thirty-Two October 28, 2008

It took a little effort, but at the last observation, Will Rogers dipped to 32 degrees.  I was starting to wonder, since as of 7am, our official low was 33…but at 8am, we came in at 32.  Looking at the mesonet map, it appears that most of the state got that freeze this morning.  The exception–southwestern Oklahoma.  Here’s the high/low temperature map from the Oklahoma Mesonet.  The bottom numbers are the overnight lows:

The prize goes to Antlers and Oilton…both locations bottomed out at 21 degrees.  It’s all a great wake-up call to make sure you know where the ice scraper is, and that you’ve got the car and the house ready for winter. 

Here’s a shot of some of the frost on the grass out by the pond here on “5 Drive”

Sarah’s calling for a high of 63 this afternoon, and a high of 70 tomorrow.  In fact, starting tomorrow, temperatures will be above average for the rest of the week.

Andy

Cold out there!! October 28, 2008

Its 7am..and here is a look at the Mesonet.  It is certainly cold out there!!  Freeze warnings are in effect for two more hours.  Bundle up as you head out!!

 

Sarah