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(ABOVE: From a few Winters ago...Thatcher Flickinger enjoying snow!)
Weekend Weather Trivia for March 15, 2009: Spring Snow
You might have seen snowflakes blowing past your nose during this past week!
Snow in March isn't rare, in fact it's our fourth snowiest month here in Green Country. In recent history, I well remember the half-foot of snow which fell on March 2 of 2002. The all-time 24 hour snowfall record for Tulsa also occurred during March when 13 inches fell during March 8-9 of 1994.
Interesting note-- my family lived in Abilene, Texas before making Tulsa our home. The all-time 24 hour snowfall total for Abilene surprisingly occurred during April! The Easter Snow of April 3, 1994 produced 10-15 inches of snow throughout West Texas.
Back here in Tulsa, the latest date in the Spring with a trace of snow is April 18, 1953. This will be the answer to Sunday's March 15, 2009 Weekend Weather Trivia question.
During Sunday's 9-10am newscast, send us an email to weekendamshow@kjrh.com with your name, city and correct guess as we're giving away a Weather Alert radio and a Family Safety Kit from the American Red Cross this month. Deana will pull out two winning names at the end of the newscast-- good luck and thanks for watching!
(Below: Shyla Flickinger with two of our children in the backyard!)
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(ABOVE: Is it pretty, or pretty scary? I'm about 1 mile away from this tornado. It formed in the Palo Duro Canyon then climbed the canyon walls to reach the flat lands.)
WWT for March 8, 2009: Tornado Safety
Of these five locations, which TWO should you AVOID during a tornado?
A. Small closet
B. Basement
C. Garage
D. Ditch
E. Under a Bridge
I chose this particular question for today because I was recently asked about two of these locations during a recent school visit. A 4th grader wondered if the garage was a safe place to shelter from a tornado. The answer is no way! The garage door may be the first thing destroyed on a well-built home, and they can be pierced by airborne debris.
The infamous 1991 Kansas Turnpike tornado video (You Tube link where someone posted it) of a TV crew "taking shelter" under a bridge also provides a false perception that bridges are safe places to take cover. (The tornado in the video is actually a "weak" tornado, but even small ones can injur and can be quite scary.)
When tornado experts first saw the video they said more people would probably end up getting hurt or killed by tornadoes because the video inaccurately portrayed that bridges offered protection. The opposite is true. Bridges are especially dangerous as winds increase as air funnels between the bridge and embankment.
During the May 3, 1999 tornadoes in the Oklahoma City area, some people tried "hiding" under overpasses. Gruesome injuries and fatalities resulted. Folks parking their cars along the highway causes obvious other problems too.
Here's a great presentation on bridges vs tornadoes:
During Sunday's 9-10am newscast, send us an email to weekendamshow@kjrh.com with your name, city and guess as we're giving away stuff this month. Thanks for reading! GF
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(ABOVE: Free Stuff! We're giving these away during WWT this month)
Channel 2 is teaming up with the American Red Cross! We'll be giving away free stuff during our popular Weekend Weather Trivia (WWT) on Sunday mornings from 9-10am. During March we'll give away a Weather Alert radio and a family First Aid Kit thanks to the Red Cross. March is Red Cross Awareness Month.
Rules:
Weekend Weather Trivia is easy to play! I'll show a WWT question, and you simply need to email us the correct answer to weekendamshow@kjrh.com with your name, city and the correct answer. At end of the newscast, Deana will randomly pull out two winning names from the emails. The first name gets the Weather Alert radio, and the second winner receives the First Aid kit. One winner per household please. Or you can just watch from home and try to win bragging rights if you get it right!
I will also post the question ahead of time on my blog if you want to do a little homework, and I'll post the correct answer after the show.
This Sunday's Weekend Weather Trivia topic: Tornado Safety
(BELOW: The lovely and talented Deana Silk will draw two winning names during WWT, or you can just play for fun and guess out loud with your family!)
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(ABOVE: I took this picture of Dan on a storm chase a few years back. Let's just say that Dan has a fan club at the Shadybrook Retirement Center!)
One of the fun duties of my job is getting "out of the office" for a few hours to speak to schools, churches and civic groups. Earlier this week I entertained the Shadybrook Retirement Center with storm chasing stories and weather safety, and I was also entertained by what I saw one of the ladies do...
Here's what happened: I passed around my storm chasing pictures for the group to look over while I chatted. One of the pictures shows Dan standing in front of a tornado. Dan is one my best friends and storm chase partner.
You see, Dan has always attracted the eyes from ladies of all ages. For example when I went to the mall with him, a teenage girl thought he was a hottie, and she snapped a picture of him on her cell phone as we walked by.
Now....back to Shadybrook...One of the ladies saw the picture of Dan and tornado and was impressed with his looks. She pretended to blush as she fanned herself and showed the picture to other ladies who nodded and smiled as they liked what they saw. Then, unknowing that I was watching, she *ahem* pretended to tuck the picture under her blouse as she stuffed the picture under her clothing.
I didn't say anything to embarass her. (Of course now I'm writing about it for the world to read about it...)
Sorry ladies, Storm Chaser Dan got married last year. He's normally behind the scenes and you probably won't see him on TV as he's helped me to get pictures, video and storm info back to Channel 2 and our viewers. But he'll always have his fans!
(Below: From last year. Here's Dan with a tornado in Central Oklahoma. Read more about this chase here:
http://community.kjrh.com/blogs/georges_blog/archive/2008/05/27/3046659.aspx)
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(ABOVE: From a few years ago...Foster dog Taffy liked to clean the inside of my glasses. She later was adopted by my wife's aunt.)
Shyla (my wife) and I use our home to foster abused, abandoned, or surrendered West Highland White Terriers as we assist Oklahoma Westie Rescue. This isn't an easy thing to do because some of the dogs need lots of love and proper socializing before they are ready for new homes. And the dogs are kind of cute too, and they become part of our family!
Now...meet Zoey! She was a 10 years old girl who was given up by a family because she bit a child and didn't like men-- turns out she was actually the most loving dog ever-- let's just say that Zoey became my little girl!
We had our own Daddy and daughter time as I took her on walks, played with her and took her to the vet. She quickly became attached to me too! I learned her noises, mannerisms, and I always knew what she needed. She wouldn't leave me, and she kept close watch on anyone who was near me.
What made her even more special was her Zoey smile. She was always happy, always smiling!
(ABOVE: Here's Zoey and her smile! I took this picture with my camera phone in the Channel 2 Weather Center when I brought her to work with me one day.)
Zoey has a new home now.
A lady named Karen who owns a yoga studio in Dallas needed Zoey's love! Zoey and Karen keep each other in good company, and Zoey greets Karen's clients with that famous smile.
I wanted to speak with Karen when she drove up to Tulsa to adopt Zoey, but I left early instead because my eyes were tearing up when Daddy realized he was losing his girl.
But I smiled when I read this email our rescue group recently received:
From Zoey:
"Hi Foster Mommy Shyla and Auntie Meredith,
Zoe here just sending a note to say “hi” and to let you know that I am very happy in my new home in Texas.
Every morning we go for a big walk. Sometimes my friend Rocky, the cairn terrier comes with us with Auntie Rebecca.
In the afternoon we go to the doggie park where I can play with my new friends Andy the bichon and Finley the westie.
I’ve lost 2 lbs and am feeling great. We have a big back yard and I love to roll in the grass. Jack, the maltese, who lives next door comes and rolls in the grass with me. It’s more fun with two!
Yesterday mommy took me to see Dr Nub, my new vet. He’s real nice and I gave him kisses, which made him laugh!
Next month we are going to outdoor obedience and agility classes. Last week we went and watched the current class. It’s going to be lots of fun and you even get good treats, too.
I am very happy here in Denton. Thank you for taking care of me and finding me a forever home with mommy. She gives me lots of love and tummy rubs.
If you get a chance, can you please sent mommy the report from my last vet visit with I was in OK?
Here’s a picture of me on my back porch. You can see what a good girl I am.
Love and wet kisses,
Zoe Grace"
Bottomline: As long as Zoey is smiling, then her Father will always be smiling too. Thanks for reading! George Flickinger
(BELOW: Zoey checking out her new back porch in Texas.)
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Are you interested in becoming a trained Storm Spotter? The Tulsa NWS is having their annual Storm Spotter Training seminars across Green Country.
The presentation for the Tulsa area is Saturday, February 28th at 9am at the TTC Lemley campus. Admission is free.
Here's the 2009 schedule for Green Country:
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(ABOVE: Visible satellite photo from Sunday 2/15/09. I labeled a few features.)
If I had only one tool to forecast the weather I would choose a visible satellite. This image above is exactly what you would see if during the late morning or early afternoon you were riding in the Space Shuttle and took a black and white picture with your camera. (Of course the text and state lines are added on.)
Clouds, lakes, mountains, the Palo Duro Canyon, dust, snow and other features are easily identified. I also use the visible satellite when I storm chase so that I can find the dryline, vertical cumulus cloud development and location of triggering upper level features.
Snow is fun to pick out. On the above image you'll see the heavy snowfall band through Nebraska and Iowa. At a glance you might think it's cloud cover as it's highly reflective, but if you animated several images you would notice that unlike the clouds, the snow doesn't move.
Notice the low cloud stratus deck over Green Country. Low clouds take longer to clear out partly due to the Ozark Mountains in western Arkansas. The clouds can get dammed up, and big temperature differences between Tulsa and Oklahoma City can result. Low clouds are the biggest culprit for missing the forecast temperature.
When Julie Chin and I do the morning weathercasts, we unfortunately can't use a visible satellite because we make out our forecasts before sunrise. The image above would appear as a blank map as there's no sunlight to make the clouds reflect for the camera-- I can't use my best forecasting tool! All we get is "OVC 023" from a computerized weather station. (Which mean overcast skies at 2,300 feet. That's dandy for pilots, but I need more info to forecast.)
On last Sunday's 9am-10am newscast, I forecast a high in the mid 40s, but we only reached 41. I spend lots of time each day trying to get the forecast exactly correct, and if I miss it by more than 2 degrees then I'm not pleased. If I had access to this image that morning, I would've noticed the thickness of the stratus and forecast cooler temperatures. Instead I forecast morning clouds then afternoon clearing-- we didn't clear out (insert angry weatherman growling face!) GF
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(ABOVE: This 2.2" hail stone is nearly the size of a tennis ball. Hail from February 10, 2009 near Meredian, OK. The largest hail I've ever seen is below.)
When I'm out in StormChaser 2 it's my job to get video and report on storm conditions, but I'm also supposed to be smart enough to get out of the way too.
By now you've probably seen the storm chaser video of me chasing last week's severe storms as they moved toward Tulsa. (Note: check the video player on the right side at: http://www.kjrh.com/weather/default.aspx)
Last Tuesday I was hit in the head by a hailstone that rivaled the size of a tennis ball. The pointy ice shards actually drew a small bit of blood in my hair (and drew smart-aleck comments from every colleague at Channel 2). Five days later, I still have a knot on my head and a bruise on my arm from the hail!
No, I wasn't seriously injured or anything close to that, but I wouldn't want it to happen again either! I was scrambling back into SC2 when I ingested the chunk of ice. I sat there quietly and didn't say a word for the next twenty minutes as I was a bit dazed.
(BELOW: Dan Lockhoff took this picture of the top of my head. That red mark is the impact spot where I got hail damaged.)
I don't want to make this too humorous as last week's storms caused death and destruction across parts of Oklahoma, but this is a good example showing that large hail can succeed the gust front of a severe storm. And that you should use more sense and take cover when chunks of ice are falling from the sky! I'm taking my cycling helmet next time...
(BELOW: On May 4, 2003, storm chase partner, Dr. David J. Williams, scooped up this hail stone which is the largest I've ever seen in person. The hail had one hour to melt before the picture was taken as he drove it back to Tulsa. This storm which produced this hail also produced deadly tornadoes in SW Missouri. Despite the caption embedded on the photo the hail was actually slightly larger than pictured here.)
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(ABOVE: This small piece of metal broke off of my bicycle frame. It's kind of important...it holds the wheel and rear shifter/derailer)
I broke my bicycle!
As you might have read on earlier blog articles, I've taken up cycling during the last two years.
Years ago I was a typical kid as I would ride my bike everywhere before I learned to drive. During college I pedaled my way to class on the huge Texas A&M campus. I looked like quite a doofus too when I had a sports injury, and instead of using crutches I pedaled with one leg!
Back then I rode a pull-off-the-shelf cheap bike from a big chain store. As far as care and maintenance, there wasn't any-- I might have aired up the tires twice! Who spends $$$ on bike repairs?! The junker bike was rained on for years, hailed on, even briefly stolen once. The tires had cracks and were half-filled with "Fix-a-Flat" to stay afloat. The 10 speed became a one speed as the shifters stopped working. Paint pealed away exposing rust spots. I was upset when the chain snapped and I had to pay $20 to have new one installed-- the bike shop was embarassed to have a nasty bike seen by customers, so they hid it upstairs away until I picked it up!
Channel 2 Chief Meteorologist Dan Threlkeld reintroduced me to cycling years later, and I learned what a difference a good bicycle makes. After he let me borrow his Cannondale bicycle I bought an old one just like it. That was just over two years ago.
Since then I've pedaled all over the Tulsa River Trails, some city streets with the Tulsa Bicycle Club, and to work-- it's fun! But after riding exactly 4,572 miles in two years my bike died. I killed it.
Here's what happened...I was riding with a group of guys in the Bixby area when my rear derailer (the small rotating cogs where the chain goes) started giving me issues. The bike wouldn't shift as normal.
I thought I had the problem fixed until I heard the derailer rubbing against the rear wheel spokes. I shifted, trying to get the derailer away from the wheel when the back of my bike exploded. The derailer jammed in the spokes!
What happened next wouldn't be good. Normally a broken/bent derailer or broken/bent spoke is the result. Instead the aluminum frame broke apart near where the rear wheel attaches. It snapped, and the rear wheel fell off! Bicycle frame = totaled. Bike = dead.
(ABOVE: That small piece broke off here. As you might guess, bike frames are more useful when they can actually hold wheels...)
A broken frame can't or shouldn't be repaired, especially as the break occurred in a critical area. I thought about having the pieces welded, but I might be killed or worse if it broke apart while I was racing Lance down a bumpy mountain hill. My old, second-hand used bike had died, but it lived a good life. Plus it gave me an excuse to upgrade!
I went to www.trek.com to check out the latest and greatest of the famed Madone road bicycles. Even a low-end new bike rivaled the cost of a used car. I can't afford that, nor would my wife be pleased if I thought about it, ("Hey honey, can we sell your shiny SUV so that I can make payments on a new bike instead?") That probably wouldn't go over too well...
Next stop...eBay and Craig's List. What can I get used for cheap? I first looked at upgrading to an aluminum frame with carbon fiber forks. (The fork is the part of the bike connecting the frame to the wheels) Then I looked at all-carbon frames. (Carbon frames look like metal, but almost feel like a thick plastic. Carbons are raced by the pros and are lighter and smoother.)
From experience I've learned it's cheaper to "spend big" up front on bicycle parts as it's more expensive to upgrade later, and I found myself wanting a carbon frame with trigger shifters. This contrasted to my rough-riding aluminum Cannondale with downtube shifters. (Downtube shifters are located on the lower bike frame instead of the handlebars.)
On eBay I found exactly the frame I wanted, and as a huge bonus it came equipped with brake upgrades and components I needed: a low-mileage 1994 Trek OCLV carbon frame and Ultegra trigger shifters. The seller claimed the bike had only 5,000 miles of use and a tune-up, and it looked almost brand new in the pictures. I exchanged several questions with the seller.
Feeling confident in the deal I put in my winning bid (with about 20 seconds left on the auction) and won it. The total cost? A few hundred bucks. Certainly much less than that $3K new bike I liked from Trek.
(Below: My old bicycle on a better day. It's a 1990 model Cannondale 3.0 Criterium. Notice the shifters on the downtube)
Of course I'm quite sad to part with my Cannondale, but parts of that bike will live on (seat, stem, pedals and some drivetrain) as I'm installing them on the new (used) bike.
My purchase from eBay has arrived, and the bike looks good at a glance. I'm almost done assembling it.
Did I get a great deal or get hosed? For what I paid the deal seems too good to be true.
How's my new ride turning out? Stay tuned! GF
(Below: Here's my new (used) bike as pictured on eBay. Now we'll see if the Green Monster works!)
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Advanced Storm Spotter Training/ Greensburg Review: February 7, Mayes County
(ABOVE: This F2 tornado passed with 100 yards of us)
On Saturday, February 7 2009, I'll team up with professional storm chaser Lanny Dean to present an advanced weather program in Mayes county.
You are welcome to attend if you are a storm spotter, emergency or law enforcement. This program isn't for kids-- it's not a "family" or a "fun" show, but instead deals with advanced spotting techniques, survival and mental anguish.
My part of the program regards advanced storm spotter training. Lanny's program deals with his chase of the deadly EF5 rated Greensburg, KS tornado. Lanny was the first chaser on the scene after the tornado shredded the town, and Lanny will talk about his experience coming across dead bodies and the mental and moral issues involved.
If you are interested in attending, please contact Kevin Bruce. Send me an email if you need his phone number. The info is below:
"Advanced Spotter Training/Greensburg review with George Flickinger and Lanny Dean. Sat Feb 7 at 7pm. NE Vo-Tech Center 5 and 1/2 mi west of Pryor on Hwy 20."
Thanks
Contact:
Kevin Bruce
(Below: one of 5 tornadoes we photographed in Central Oklahoma on May 24, 2008.)
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Danger...Ice on Cars.
(ABOVE: Channel 2 employee Russell Mills had his windshield shattered from flying ice.)
"The drivers here are terrible!" warned some of the newsroom personel. "It starts getting icy; people forget how to drive!"
Sound familiar? But this wasn't a reference to Tulsa. Exactly ten years ago I flew to Memphis just days after icy weather moved through Tennessee. I was actually there for a job interview, and the TV station employees we're griping about Memphis drivers, "I've lived everywhere, and this town has the worst drivers anywhere!"
At the time I was living in Abilene, Texas. Sure enough, Abilene folks complained too, "West Texas drivers are the worst at driving in ice!"
A few years ago I worked briefly in Fort Smith. You would hear, "the drivers here are horrible in Arkansas. Our drivers are the worst!"
So... who's the worst. Is it Tulsa? Actually the worst is probably any town that has icy weather!
When I drove to work on Monday (when the freezing drizzle started), I witnessed more than one car wreck happen, and I saw more flashing lights and wrecked vehicles than I wanted to count. Every single bridge on the Broken Arrow Expressway had a crumpled car.
-If drizzle is occurring while temperatures are below freezing, then bridges will be icy though they just look "wet".
-When driving over bridges, don't hit the brakes if your car "wiggles." Keep steering, and you should be fine. Don't brake on the bridge. Slow down before you get to the bridge.
-Don't change lanes on the bridge either. Ruts are your friend.
-If you have rear-wheel drive (Ford Explorer, Chevy Blazer...) you are roughly a zillion times more likely to have traction problems.
-Try to avoid wheel-spin or skiding by slowing down well before you reach the traffic light. You might can avoid a full stop and start.
-And please, please, please, please remove the snow and ice from the top of your vehicle. The results of flying ice are below as this happened to Russell Mills, the kjrh.com webmaster. Russell was cruising along Highway 169 when a huge piece of ice flew off someone's car. You can see where it landed...
(BELOW: View from the driver's seat of Russell's car. An airborne ice shard could injur or worse...)
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(ABOVE: This map from the Tulsa NWS shows the amount of ice build-up from the freezing rain event of January 26-27, 2009)
How thick does freezing rain need to be before power lines and electric service fail?
There's not an "official" amount where trouble starts, but:
-Ice thickness totals of 0.50" (half of an inch of ice sticking to tree limbs or whatever) can cause problems to trees and powerlines.
-Power loss is more likely than not in areas of 0.75".
-Any total of 1.00"+ indicates significant icing and usually widespread power loss. If it looks like a bomb exploded in the trees, then it's probably one inch or more coating of ice!
The map also shows where the worst power outages occurred as Tahlequah, Westville and northwest Arkansas suffered. Power loss occurred near Muskogee and Checotah also, but many folks are now powered up.
(Below: Snow totals from January 26-27, 2009. Map courtesy: Tulsa NWS)
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Taken Thursday night, April 3, 2008.
Lariat # 2 ?Sandridge Energy?
South of Ft Stockton , TX
(ABOVE: Have you received this picture in your email? It'a hoax! The real picture is below.)
You might have received the picture and message in your inbox. Several viewers have forwarded this to us during the last year.
The picture claims to be a tornado near a West Texas oil platform. Sorry! As you might guess the picture has been altered as an oil platform is unrealistically pasted in front of the tornado. And having traveled through Fort Stockton before, there's no trees anywhere near that size!
The funnel and lightning; however, are a legitimate. I first saw the real picture years ago, and it's one of the most famous weather pictures ever taken.
The original picture is below, and it's actually a waterspout. It was taken in 1991 at Lake Okeechobee in Florida:
http://web.archive.org/web/20031125223558/http://www.srh.noaa.gov/mlb/hwofiles/svrwxrules.html
Ironically the real picture hung as a poster in my college dorm room 15 years ago. (If you could see past the dirty clothes, pizza boxes and empty "drink" cans on the floor...)
(BELOW: Waterspout and lightning photo. Courtesy: Fred Smith/1991. I had a poster of this when I was in college.)
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The map above provided by the OCS shows the "normal" snowfall in Oklahoma as determined by averaging results over the last 30 year period.
As depicted by the graph, Tulsa's normal is 9" while the heaviest snow usually falls in Oklahoma Panhandle. Some folks might be surprised by the near 30" yearly totals in the desert! Also notice the totals increasing east of Tulsa due in part to the enhancement of topograpical lift. The small mountain areas help increase local snowfall amounts.
I used this map in my Weekend Weather Trivia question on the Sunday 9-10am newscast, and feel free to use it/save it as needed. Thanks for watching! GF
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About temperatures dropping below 0°.
(ABOVE: You're the meteorologist! Draw a line contour where temperatures drop below 0°.
This weather map is from the cold morning of January 15, 2009. I've drawn in the 0° answer at the bottom of this blog article.)
As of this writing 13 years have passed since a temperature below 0°F was observed in Tulsa. We dropped to an astonishing -11° on the snow covered morning of February 4, 1996. Three Winters ago, we dropped to exactly 0° in Tulsa.
(ABOVE: Richard Waters recently took this picture of an icy fountain in Broken Arrow.)
Seven hours drive from here...if you have friends and family in Iowa, temperatures colder than -20° were recorded this past Thursday morning-- and it was windy! Textbooks tell me that your bare skin can freeze in less than 5 minutes!
The answer and explanations are below:
(ABOVE: Temperatures below 0° were observed north of the pink line. This map shows Tulsa was 12° (the red number) and Kansas City was -2°. Temperatures plunged colder than -20° in much of Iowa. See the snowflake icons next to Tulsa? ** means light to moderate snow while * means flurries. )
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