by Lornna Bates
Managing editor
In Oklahoma, the weather conditions of 2011 made for a year of extremes. The year began and ended with relatively mild weather,which has continued through 2012, but the time frame in between was far from mild.
Numerous records were broken, records that had existed for many years. In a press release reviewing the weather of 2011,Oklahoma “experienced nearly every weather calamity possible, setting all-time records for heat, cold, drought, tornadoes, hail and snow,” said Gary McManus, associate state climatologist of the Oklahoma Climatological Survey.
In addition, Oklahoma was rocked by a series of earthquakes during the month of November, “including a 5.6 intensity quake near Sparks on Nov. 5 – the strongest ever recorded in Oklahoma,” said McManus.
According to McManus, two winter weather storms of significant value hit the state in late January and early February of 2011.
Karen Moore, course information specialist of the Registrar’s Office, said that the school closings for Southeastern corresponded. The university was closed for inclement weather Jan. 10, Feb. 1-4 and then again Feb. 9-10.
“The first (storm) dumped up to 21 inches of snow in northeast Oklahoma with widespread reports of 6-12 inches over much of the state,” said McManus. “During a second storm several days later, the state record for 24-hour snowfall was broken when 27 inches of snow fell in Spavinaw over Feb. 8-9.”
On Feb. 10 Oklahoma broke yet another record. “The Oklahoma Mesonet site at Nowata reached a low of 31 degrees below zero,” said McManus. A majority of the northern portion of Oklahoma witnessed the bite of temperatures 20 degrees below zero or even lower.
The state’s previous record low of 27 degrees below was reached in both 1930 and 1905, McManus said in a news report from Feb. 10 on msnbc.msn.com.
The SE Bookstore experienced difficulty during the school closings, said Jackie Codner, manager of the Barnes and Noble campus installation. The storms fell around the initial semester rush, during the weeks before and after the beginning of the semester, she said.
Student emails were shut down, but Codner was able to promote eTextbooks on Facebook, she said, resulting in a number of digital book copies ordered. In addition, special-order books were delayed in arriving, said Codner, because of the weather and the delivery service’s inability to safely transport the orders.
Capt. Stacy Ballew, assistant director of Campus Police, said there were no unusual numbers of accidents that occurred on the SE campus during the winter weather storms.
Both Ballew and Codner said there was nobody on campus, and if there were, they weren’t venturing out into the icy conditions.
“As another example of 2011’s extreme weather,” said McManus, “high temperatures seven days later were in the 70s and 80s across the state. Nowata’s high temperature on Feb. 17 was 79 degrees, a remarkable 110-degree temperature swing within a week’s time.”
On the other end of the spectrum, “Oklahoma experienced the hottest summer of any state since records began in 1895 with a statewide average of 86.9 degrees,” said McManus. “July’s average temperature was 89.3 degrees, becoming the hottest month for any state on record, besting over 67,000 other months.”
According to McManus, Oklahoma also experienced the second hottest temperatures recorded for both the months of June and August of 2011.
“The Oklahoma Mesonet site at Grandfield recorded 101 days above 100 degrees, breaking the previous state record of 86 days from Hollis in 1956,” said McManus.
In addition, the record for Oklahoma City was previously 50 days of 100 plus degrees, a mark set in 1980. 2011 experienced 63 days of 100 plus degree days. “Similar records were broken throughout western Oklahoma,” said McManus.
McManus said La Niña was most likely responsible for the record high temperatures across the state, which brought extreme drought.
“The Oklahoma Mesonet site at Hooker recorded 6.2 inches of precipitation for the year,” said McManus, “the lowest total for an individual location ever recorded in Oklahoma.” The previous record, measuring 6.5 inches, was from 1956 in the town of Regnier.
In 1999, Oklahoma experienced a record 145 tornadoes, killing 42 people. 2011 brought the second highest count of 118 tornadoes, with 14 fatalities noted as the highest since 1999, said McManus.
Among the twisters, said McManus, was an EF5 which brought a recorded wind gust of 151 mph at the El Reno Mesonet site, the highest surface wind recorded in Oklahoma without the use of radar.
April 2011 bested its previous number, recording 50 tornadoes, said McManus. Oddly enough, all tornadoes occurred east of I-35.
November also recorded 10 tornadoes, which was the second highest on record for that month.
An EF4 tornado hit southwestern portions of Oklahoma on Nov. 7, said McManus, the highest tornado on record for the state of November.
As if that were not enough records broken, on May 23 Oklahoma witnessed a 6-inch diameter hailstone, also setting a new record, said McManus.
Due to the extreme weather conditions of 2011, Oklahoma paid billions of dollars in damages, McManus said.
He also said that 2012 would most likely experience mild weather conditions, as has been the case thus far, because of the extremes that occurred the previous year.
Eddie Harbin, director of the Physical Plant, said that the SE experienced damages to the landscaping and plants had to be replaced, but there were no other noticeable impacts to the campus.