[Goodpasture]

Originally Posted by _redbird_

Anyone care to come over and pick up sticks? My yard has a whole fall and winter's worth of tree limbs and branches on the ground. Might be good exercise for goodpasture.

I get plenty of exercise jumping to conclusions, but thanks for thinking of me.

[Griffis]

The weather was one of the major factors making me want to flee Oklahoma. I do miss the thunderstorms, but the heat and humidity is ridiculous. You get that for half the year, then you get tornado season (yay!) and then it's time for ice storms that fell trees and down power lines.

Plus, it's just too landlocked.

I've sure lived in and visited places I like less, and there are things to recommend Oklahoma, but I spent a lot of years all over that state and it's not my preference. Still have many friends and family there, and had some great times there, but I gotta be near the Ocean.

[rockyinyourradio]

I hope this thread isn't doomed to fall by the wayside. Been busy myself, just a quick update. Possible isolated hailstorms today in NW OK. and again tomorrow in the central&SE. Nothing major but the potential is there. Maybe Sunday night and Monday could be interesting with possible severe weather mostly south and east of OKC, could be one nasty outbreak of severe weather from AR. to IL. Monday PM and maybe Tue. further east. A period of dry weather after that and the typically above normal temps. will persist.

Done a little study on long term weather patterns. Looks possible that we'll sail right into a summer weather pattern a few weeks early at least and now I'm concerned we will dry out and heat up substantially by mid May, summer could be another roaster after all but still not as hot as last year but definitely more humid. A couple of the long range computer models indicate a dramatic cool down to below normal temps. for next fall and that possibly next winter could be a doozy. Who knows.. all total speculation at this point. Try to contribute to this thread if you can.. One thing maybe you can chime in on for the long time residents, do you ever remember a year where it greened up this early? This is crazy.

[StillwaterTownie]

More time may be needed to tell, but I'm glad it seems most trees survived last summer's high heat and drought.

[StillwaterTownie]

Originally Posted by Griffis

The weather was one of the major factors making me want to flee Oklahoma. I do miss the thunderstorms, but the heat and humidity is ridiculous. You get that for half the year, then you get tornado season (yay!) and then it's time for ice storms that fell trees and down power lines.

Plus, it's just too landlocked.

I've sure lived in and visited places I like less, and there are things to recommend Oklahoma, but I spent a lot of years all over that state and it's not my preference. Still have many friends and family there, and had some great times there, but I gotta be near the Ocean.

Sounds like San Diego is more your world.

Stillwater has only been hit by one ice storm and missed two of them by just a matter of miles since 2000, so to me the ice storms haven't been frequent. Neither are tornadoes frequent, since Stillwater hasn't been strongly hit by one since 1990. But will admit it seems there is at least one tornado warning nearly every year and don't like the worry and stress when under one.

If last summer's daily 100+ degree heat becomes the new climate rule here, I may have to more than just dream of living in San Diego. Last summer was just incredible. In addition, to 2011 the below zero temp of around -20 was crazy. The extreme cold possibly killed or damaged more plants than the heat did. Then later the earthquakes. A lot of people felt an actual earthquake for the first time.

2011 was such a crazy bad year. I think most of us don't want 2012 to turn out likewise. With the drought from 2011 now broken in most of Oklahoma, the weather, so far, has been crazy in a good way.

[rockyinyourradio]

Originally Posted by StillwaterTownie

More time may be needed to tell, but I'm glad it seems most trees survived last summer's high heat and drought.

I wish I could say the same here around Piedmont. I have about 10 trees close to my house, 4 of which are silver maples, only one really made it through the drought and heat, despite my watering them regularly. I have a landscaping company coming out to remove them next week, that will be a sad day as I love my trees. The place we owned back up in the U.P of Michigan, I had literally thousands of trees.. do I miss that! Alot of the silver maples in my little neighbourhood NW of Piedmont also have suffered a similar fate. Surprisingly, some of the cottonwoods also didn't make it as they tend to be more drought resistant.

On the flip side, I haven't seen it this green in a couple of years, this is my favourite time of year with all the wheat fields and prairie grass looking as good as it is. I'm blessed with expansive views in all directions from where I live. I'll need to post a few pictures if I can figure out how to do that on here.
(tips anyone?)

One thing I should add to my post from yesterday, my guess is that we are going to be hearing about significant heat and drought for parts of the central and northern plains into the midwest this summer, we'll be in some of that but I'm reasonably confident it won't be as bad as last year. Starting this fall and lasting through next winter, we'll be experiencing (more than likely) a mild el nino, which is good for moisture here in Oklahoma. Between now and summer, the amount of rainfall we get not only here but further west in the TX. panhandle will dictate how we fair out into the summer. The more moisture we get, the less heat is radiated back into the atmosphere to heat us up, but, we'll pay the penalty of more humidity, but in turn creates better chances for more rain to occur.

Meanwhile, if your interested, here is an article you may find interesting from an acquaintance of mine in Minnesota, one of the best meteorologist's around wrote a piece about climate change. Hopefully, his prediction won't come to pass.

A Message From A Republican Meteorologist On Climate Change | ThinkProgress

[photomakerjohn]

Tulsa skyline weather picture sometimes we get a lot of lightning in Tulsa Oklahoma

[rockyinyourradio]

Nice image photomaker John! Could you PM me and tell me how I can post images on here? I have many I can share on here. Hopefully everyone got in on this latest rainfall. Latest model trends suggest a wet week coming up starting Easter Weekend.. bring it on!

[Judith27]

Many students find the program along with the math too much which is understandable.

[SluggoF16]

I suspect that the storm chasers will get their money's worth for the next several days (Wednesday 12 Apr 2012 to Sunday 15 Apr 2012). We're covering our ceilometer every night with hail-resistant pads just in case.