[Summerz]

Sad to hear about the fires.

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Grass Fires Erupt In Parts Of Oklahoma - News9.com - Oklahoma City, OK - News, Weather, Video and Sports |

Last thing they need.

[debbie at bouontiful]

Amen about your chickens rockyinyourradio. I have a couple of old horses that I've had to lock up for over a week now because of this heat. I have outdoor dogs living in the laundry room all day and I worry about my cows. The ponds are looking pretty bad so I think I'll have to start watering them too. Gosh I think I water my gardens twice a day and now the trees I am watering. While my wonderful husband has been working in Korea since April. He says they complain over there if it hits 80!

[nightbird47]

Originally Posted by SluggoF16

One of my workers told me today "Remind me not to move to Arizona." Right now we're ten degrees hotter than PHX. The weather reminds me of my youth, riding a bike home 4 miles in 110+ temperatures. Of course, 30+ years ago the heat was a minor annoyance.

When I was a kid, and early teens, I lived in Los Angeles, actually the valley. When my friends walked to the store on a 110 degree day, we didn't bother with shoes. Mostly we didn't bother with shoes all summer. Our feet were impenatrable, but I still don't see how we manage not to burn them. Now I put my boots easy to pull on when I walk across the yard since the dead grass pokes your foot.

I guess my past addresses, or some of them, got me ready for here. I just wish when we were in school and it was 110 and the bungaloos had NO AC that they'd cancelled class. You could have tossed out the first month of school for those classes in the bungaloos without anyone noticing. One time my math teacher gave everyone water, and drew and icecube on the board. Our assignment was sitting, hydrating and looking at the icecube and thinking how cool it was.

Oddly, it worked. Didn't help math much.

Kids today are VERY LUCKY. We got to sit and bake regardless of the temp with first stage smog alerts and nobody was worried.

[rockyinyourradio]

I'm becoming more encouraged by the latest data suggesting that a gradual pattern change is on the way. The "heat dome" which basically is a large area of high pressure aloft that creates a very stable atmosphere with air that sinks towards the surface and heats up.. will migrate westward into the 4 corners area of NM, AZ, NV and CO. It will be their turn to bake as they will see some abnormally high temps. and below normal rainfall. How this affects us is this will place us on the eastern edge of the high which allows winds to blow from the NW and N at the mid levels (12-18,000 feet). This will help cool us down some, but.. with the ground baked hard and dry, above normal temperatures will prevail. Also with this potential set up, we may see thunderstorm clusters that originate over the high plains to move south and east, possibly affecting our area. The GFS model suggests up to an inch of moisture may occur over portions of central and northern OK. over the next ten days starting tonight. We shall see.

In the short term, one last scorching day with extreme wild fire conditions. Projected high for OKC is 113F. I don't think we'll see that but 108-110F is a possibility, depending how fast a cool front makes it way southward. I think we stand a good chance of widely scattered thunderstorms thisevening basically north of an El Reno, Stillwater, Tulsa line. If your one of the fortunate ones to get a storm, expect up to a quarter inch of rain. The down side to this, intense downburst winds are possible with the strongest storms with gusts to 75mph. Lightning may be an issue in sparking wildfires. Best chances of seeing rain between 4-7pm near the KS. border to around Perry and Pawnee, south of there.. anytime after about 8-9pm, give or take a couple of hours.

So, hang in there, I believe the back of this historic heat wave will break after today, but still expect more periods of above normal heat (103-108F) on and off as we finish up summer on into early Sept. but shouldn't be as lengthy as the one we've just endured.

[rockyinyourradio]

Originally Posted by StillwaterTownie

Thanks. Please explain what constitutes a heat advisory. I've noticed that a heat advisory and an excessive heat warning can be in effect at the same time.

StillwaterTownie: It seems the definition I've found is very similar to the excessive heat warning. I think that each weather service office goes by different criteria for different areas of the country. I'll have to look into this more and try to elaborate. Meanwhile, the definition below is what the National Weather Service constitutes the criteria met for issuing a heat advisory. Not sure how much this answers your question.

"A heat advisory is issued within 12 hours of the onset of the following conditions: heat index of at least 105°F but less than 115°F for less than 3 hours per day, or nighttime lows above 80°F for 2 consecutive days."

Edit: Just saw the difference, heat index EXCEEDS 115F for excessive heat warning.. up to 115F for heat advisory. I do believe the criteria is adjusted for places where extreme heat is more of an anomaly, like the Pacific Northwest or New England..

[SluggoF16]

The Four Corners High was something we prayed for in Arizona... it led, along with the thermal Low, to those wonderful afternoon monsoons. Maybe Ernesto will bring us some relief unless the high pushes its remnants west into southern NM.

As a kid I used to ride a bike from work at 5 in the afternoon in the Phoenix area. It was every bit as hot as it is here this week, and as dry. But then, I was a young teenager and none-too-bright. As a 19-year-old I swabbed tar on flat roofs in PHX in the summer. But then we usually knocked off by 11 when it hit 100

Yesterday our high at the range was "only" 111.6 F. 112.7 is the year's record. (FMQ-19/OS-21 weather station)

[StillwaterTownie]

Originally Posted by Summerz

Sad to hear about the fires.


Grass Fires Erupt In Parts Of Oklahoma - News9.com - Oklahoma City, OK - News, Weather, Video and Sports |

Last thing they need.

So true, and it's more than grass that has been burning. It's beautiful trees, too, as picture below taken shows from the aftermath of the fire a couple miles east of Stillwater that happened Monday. A woman lived in a house in the woods not far from where picture was snapped. Here is a touching story about her: Wildfires bring destruction, tears to Stillwater residents » Local News » Stillwater NewsPress



This fire burnt over a 2 mile path through fields and woods.

[SluggoF16]

That looks a lot like the Medicine Park/Wildlife Refuge fire of last year. A lot of the red oaks were stressed and burned easily. Fortunately there's been an aggressive cedar control program that minimized (maybe not a great word) the damage. Last week's Indiahoma-Cooperton fire was 23,000 acres and mostly grass... the fact that the winds were consistent and the fire burned into wheat stubble and plowed fields minimized the effect.

[rockyinyourradio]

Originally Posted by rockyinyourradio

StillwaterTownie: It seems the definition I've found is very similar to the excessive heat warning. I think that each weather service office goes by different criteria for different areas of the country. I'll have to look into this more and try to elaborate. Meanwhile, the definition below is what the National Weather Service constitutes the criteria met for issuing a heat advisory. Not sure how much this answers your question.

"A heat advisory is issued within 12 hours of the onset of the following conditions: heat index of at least 105°F but less than 115°F for less than 3 hours per day, or nighttime lows above 80°F for 2 consecutive days."

Edit: Just saw the difference, heat index EXCEEDS 115F for excessive heat warning.. up to 115F for heat advisory. I do believe the criteria is adjusted for places where extreme heat is more of an anomaly, like the Pacific Northwest or New England..

Ironically, just saw the forecast for one of my favorite places.. the Seattle area, they have a heat advisory in effect.. temps. expected, 85-93 today, low to mid 90's tomorrow. Typically when they get this hot, humidity levels are in the 30% range on down. So as I surmised, criteria requirements vary with each region of the country.

Concerning those pictures, truly heart breaking.. didn't have time to read the posts but if this is arson related like I heard last night, if the perpetrators are caught, they should NEVER see a free day outside of prison in their miserable wretched lives again, but I'll keep this kind of rant for another thread if presented.

[_redbird_]

Highway 9 was shut down completely this AM due to the wildfire east of Norman. DOT had all traffic routed to I-40. Just now on the way home, the offramp from I-40 to Shawnee had police barricades. Must be a big fire south of Shawnee. The city had some heavy smoke covering the city.

The red cedars that have taken over a lot of pasture land are probably going to go up like dried out Christmas trees.