Daily Archives: 15 December, 2009

Lies and statistics

15 December, 20099:00 a.m.

Whenever someone looks back on the weather statistics for December 14, 2009, they’ll see the high temperature for Wichita that day was 49.

And they’ll think it was a reasonably pleasant day for mid-December in the heart of the Great Plains. Now, those of us who actually experienced it will know Monday was anything but pleasant, with daytime highs in the 20s and wind chills at times below zero.

That 49 was recorded not long after midnight, before the latest arctic air mass arrived to make our teeth chatter. So, technically, the data is accurate — but that quite-tolerable high came at a time when most of us were tucked away in bed.

Sunrise delivered much different conditions.

By Stan Finger | Filed under History, Temperatures | Comments Off

November’s national tornado drought not unusual – but absence of watches is

15 December, 20098:30 a.m.

Greg Carbin, warning coordination meteorologist with the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, alerted me earlier this month about a first at the agency for which he works.

The Storm Prediction Center issued no tornado or severe thunderstorm watches last month, the only November in the watch database (which dates back to 1970) during which no watches were issued for anywhere in the country.

More than 3 weeks passed – from November 7 to 29 – between tornado touchdowns in the U.S. That’s not odd for this time of year, Carbin tells me.

In fact, he said, it’s only about half the time of the longest tornado-free period over the past 20 years. Just seven years ago there was tornado drought that lasted 45 days, from December 31, 2002 through mid-February, 2003.

Other tornado droughts in the longer-term record include:

57 days, ending on Nov. 14, 1952.
54 days, ending on Jan. 28, 1956.
52 days, ending on Feb. 2, 1986.
45 days, ending on Jan. 19, 1961.
45 days, ending on Jan. 22, 1981.

By Stan Finger | Filed under Tornadoes | Comments Off

Another day in the freezer for Wichita

15 December, 20096:41 a.m.

It’s another day to stay inside as much as possible for the Wichita area – and bundle up aplenty for those forays outside, forecasters say.

Highs won’t make it out of the 20s and wind chills will be near or below 0 most of the day, forecasters say. Northerly winds will be pretty light, actually, staying mostly in the single digits. But at these temperatures, it doesn’t take much to drop wind chills to dangerous levels.

A brief warm-up is coming for the middle of the week, with highs in the mid-40s. But a chance of snow arrives Friday and highs will climb only into the 30s through the weekend and into early next week.

By Stan Finger | Filed under Forecast | Comments