11/30-12/2 Oklahoma snow chase
This yankee boy felt right at home after our record setting snowfall, I know its made me even more envious for you fine people back up north,.. Still this last storm gave me hope that winter does still happen in the midst of our global warming.
After a very mild early morning on Wed. (28Nov) the artic front roared through around 7:30am dropping temps from 60F to 36F in one hour, occasional very light drizzle and freezing drizzle was the rule the rest of the day as temps sank below 32 by early afternoon with winds gusting to 45mph at times. That night, warm air advection plus increased vertical velocities in response to the approaching upper level vortmax set off showers of freezing rain and sleet and thunderstorms by early evening, thankfully the ice just missed my place to the southeast but lightning was still visible..
Early the next morning (Fri. 30Nov), the initial wave of heavy snow and sleet announced its arrival with a couple loud cracks of thunder... I quickly dressed with camcorder in hand and head out the back door to an intense burst of sleet mixed with very large snowflakes.. and winds that were between 25-35mph... I thought it was strange seeing such large flakes of snow along with the wind.. by 8:30, close to two inches of snow had fallen, snow was intermitten between light and moderate but winds picked up, at times gusting to 50mph, frequently reducing visibilities to less than a quarter of a mile.
I took off around noon and drove all around Piedmont then headed up toward Kingfisher, despite near white out conditions at times, travel at least for me wasn't a problem thanks to my four wheel drive SUV. I ended up in OKC early in the evening, a brief respite came over late in the afternoon as the centre of the system passed over, then the back side hit with 1-2"/hr snowfall rates...The only white knuckler for me was the last two miles of the trip back home as finger drifts crept across the road, some were almost as high as my bumper... I barely made it, even in four wheel drive. The storm ended by mid evening, the winds died down to next to nothing within an hour after the snow stopped.
Yesterday morning dawned a landscape that you would typically see in North Dakota (at least where I live) about 6" of snow fell but drifts were anywhere from a foot to three feet deep. Temperatures sank to 4 above zero which had to be a record for so early in the season. Needless to say, the winter freak in me was out in full glory soaking up the sights with lots of pictures and video... was out again thismorning at the crack of dawn, an icy mist hung over the snow drapped prairies with temps in the low to mid teens... alot of life's trials and tribulations were made small with this wintry gift from above.
It's a good day to be alive.
Blessings! Rocky&family