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Weather at 3:15 p.m.

Christian Potts — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 20:22:12 +0000

After about a four-hour break in the snow in the Norman area, the second wave of it is about to get here, according to the radar.
Reports are for about 2 to 4 extra inches to fall on top of what’s come down so far. Coupled with winds that are in the 20-to-30 mile per hour range from the north, it will be cold and tough to see when heavier pockets of snow come down.
Road conditions at the moment are decent. There are some slick spots but for the most part it’s just wet, helped by how warm it’s been the last few days and that keeping the ground temperature pretty warm.
As has been indicated all day, the worst of the snow will hit north and east of here, and travel in that direction tonight could be pretty tough.
For those coming from the south up I-35, it’s not going to be as bad but still iffy. My daughter and her sister and mom are in the Dallas area right now but plan to wait it out tonight and come tomorrow morning, when the snow will be done and worries about visibility, drifts and slick roads shouldn’t be as bad.
One positive about this storm over the one in late January: power outages have been limited. There are about 1,000 OG&E customers down in the Oklahoma City area and no other major outages reported locally. That compares to almost everything from just south and west of Norman all the way almost to the southwest corner of the state losing power seven weeks ago.

11:30 weather update

Christian Potts — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 16:31:10 +0000

The National Weather Service radar shows the first wave of snow should be ending in the next hour or so.
From there, it looks like a bit of a gap for a while there will be minimal if any snow for a couple of hours. That’s when the next band of the swirling snow makes its way over west to east from the Texas panhandle and western Oklahoma to our area.
That’s when we’ll start getting what’s expected to be a little heavier snowfall and possibly stronger winds. That snow is projected to last through the evening and into the overnight hours before ending early Sunday morning.
Snow accumulation projections still are the same, about 4 to 6 inches. And the worst of it still is expected toward Tulsa as the future snowfall moves over that area to add to what’s already happened there. The bands of snow there now are heavier than what we saw earlier this morning.

Weather-related closings

Christian Potts — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 15:44:38 +0000

Just a few to pass along. The Pioneer Library System has closed all of its facilities, which include the Norman, Moore, Noble and Purcell Public Libraries, today.
Also, the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History is closed today.
A handful of Oklahoma City churches already have canceled services and activities for Sunday but it looks like most area churches are waiting to see how things go.
If you know of anything else closing down as the day goes on, please feel free to post it here so people can find out as soon as possible.

Weather update – airport issues, basketball games

Christian Potts — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 15:04:40 +0000

Several departures and arrivals for later this morning at Will Rogers World Airport already have been canceled, and the number likely will increase as the day goes along.
That’s a problem for people maybe coming back from Spring Break outings.
The good news is that once the snow ends overnight, temperatures are projected to rise into the high 30s Sunday, and the airport ought to be back to full speed, not causing quite the number of problems we saw from the two previous big storms this season.
Where it could cause some trouble is fans arriving from out of town for the NCAA women’s basketball regional that begins Sunday in Norman.
Many basketball fans are in Norman and the Oklahoma City metro already with both the men’s and women’s NCAA tournaments playing first- and second-round games here this weekend.
And even as the weather outside gets more frightful, the chance of games being postponed or delayed by poor travel conditions is almost zero, due to the demands of television and keeping to the schedule of the round-by-round tournament.
So game times aren’t expected to change. Today’s schedule at the Ford Center has Kansas and Northern Iowa playing at 4:40 p.m. with the Kansas State-Brigham Young game set for 30 minutes after the completion of the first game.
Sunday’s games at the University of Oklahoma’s Lloyd Noble Center are played in the evening, and by that point all the snow should be out of the area and hopefully road conditions will have improved by then.
Game times Sunday are 6:16 p.m. for Georgia Tech vs. Arkansas-Little Rock, with the Oklahoma-South Dakota State game to begin 30 minutes after that game, likely a little bit before 9 p.m.

Saturday morning snow update

Christian Potts — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 14:46:16 +0000

Hello, friends, and welcome to spring.
So far it looks like too much of winter did.
Here’s what the story is as of about 9:45 a.m.
The snow started just before sunrise, right now in Moore there is perhaps an inch on the ground but more falling.
The bad news is the strongest bands of snow still are due this afternoon and this evening, and the whipping north winds figure to continue and possibly even get a little stronger.
However, no blizzard warnings are in place yet, according to the National Weather Service.
The snow projection for Norman is about 3 to 6 inches with snow expected to fall until sometime overnight tonight.
That projection gets much higher north and east, with 12 to 20 inches forecasted for Tulsa and areas northeast of there.
Travel is OK right now, but out-of-town travel, especially north and east, is going to get much worse. No major highways are closed at this time but don’t be shocked if that happens before the day is over.
More later. I’m going to go eat some pancakes.

We don’t really like winter

Christian Potts — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 12:12:23 +0000

The title says it all. We do like a break from the 100-degree summers, sure, but in the end we don’t like real “winter” around Oklahoma.
We don’t mind the occasional bitterly cold night. But it better warm up so we can play golf within a few days, albeit a bit bundled up.
That once a season snow fall we would get growing up was great fun for making snowmen and having a snowball fight, maybe getting out of a school for a snow day once a year or so.
But this winter, yes, it’s reminded us we just don’t like the cold. Looking outside this morning and, yet again, seeing snow on the ground, brings a sarcastic reaction of “oh great” rather than a reaction of “oh great!!!”
It almost makes storm season desirable.

Drive with care

Christian Potts — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 21:01:19 +0000

After three days of updating my blog from the confines of my living room and not doing much sliding around, save that spent playing in the yard with the kids and shoveling my driveway, deicing my car and making one trip to my favorite buffet in Moore, I’ve made the trip back to the offices of The Transcript.
It’s driveable, but with care. Here are my experiences from the last couple of days.
• Make sure all the ice is knocked off your car. A big patch from the roof that you leave on may not seem like a big deal until it flies off the back as you’re driving, or, as happened to us, comes loose and slides in one big block down the front windshield as you’re stopping at a stoplight. It’s a miracle the windshield wipers didn’t get torn apart, or worse.
• The main roads are in pretty good shape, but getting to them is an adventure. So whatever the safest way out of your neighborhood is, take it. For me that means going the opposite direction of my eventual destination the first two blocks, but it’s well worth it to only drive two blocks instead of about eight on the nasty stuff.
• Walk carefully. The church parking lot looked pretty decent today but had several really slick patches. Anything you do trying to get in a hurry likely will lead to trouble.
And while I’m talking about church, I now must shamelessly pat my own group on the back. About half the churches we drove by on the way weren’t even open, but St. Andrews United Methodist Church not only was open but had what looked to me like as big or bigger group there than usual.

Snow ice cream

Christian Potts — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 22:10:54 +0000

The weather updates seem to be a broken record today. Snow, snow, more snow, now the system has slowed down a little and it’s going to snow longer than it was looking a few hours ago.
So it’s a good time for some snow ice cream. In my house that means ice cream, creamer, a little bit of milk and a little powdered sugar. Mmmmmmm. Might spoil dinner tonight though!
Anyone else have a better recipe? Let me know!

1 p.m. Friday update

Christian Potts — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 19:09:39 +0000

Snow continues to fall and pile up around the county, as the number of power outages locally climbs.
About 1,000 outages in Norman and another 61 in Moore were being reported as of 1 p.m. by OG&E, and about 2,800 Oklahoma Electric Cooperative customers in Norman and Noble also were without power.
And while the snow has been steady all morning, the end is in sight. The latest National Weather Service radar image showed the line of snow lifting northward on a line from just north of Lawton extending over to about Ardmore. At the rate it’s moving, the snow ought to be ending around 4 p.m.
And once the snow is gone, it’s gone, with the next forecast for precipitation not coming until Wednesday. It still will be cold with a forecasted high of 30 Saturday before temperatures are expected to barely creep above freezing Sunday. Lows both nights will be in the low teens.
It will be the first of next week before significant melting starts, with high temperatures in the low 40s projected throughout the week.

Friday morning storm update

Christian Potts — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 14:04:02 +0000

Light snow is falling and is expected to for several hours. The bigger issue this morning is what that snow, combined with the sleet from yesterday afternoon, will do to the roads.
At best, it will be a slow go, but you are better off just staying home if possible. The precipitation should clear off by this afternoon but cold temperatures will keep driving conditions rough today.
For Saturday and Sunday, though it will be rough on a lot of neighborhood streets and back roads, should be better on the main roads.
As far as power outages, the expected big rash of them happened, but the bulk of it missed the Oklahoma City metro area. Other than about 1,800 outages in McLoud, on the very eastern edge of the metro area, OG&E’s system watch showed about 200 outages in the metro area with 87 in Norman just before 8 a.m. But to the south and east of the metro, the last wave of sleet and wind I had mentioned in one of my last entries Thursday caused some issues. More than 10,000 customers in areas stretching from McLoud south toward Ada, Seminole and Holdenville and back to the west toward Pauls Valley are still in the dark this morning.
Also, Public Service Company of Oklahoma has a lot of work to do with nearly 12,000 outages in Chickasha and areas south of there along highway 81 toward Duncan and west along highway 277 through Cement and Cyril toward Lawton are seeing heavy numbers of outages. PSO said early Monday it was sending many crews from the Tulsa area, which was not hit hard, to western Oklahoma go help get restoration done as quickly as possible.