Old Crazy Is The New Normal

                                                  Beaver County, Oklahoma. March 28, 2006

When the residents in my little corner of the state went to bed last night, we...

1. Were still firmly in the grips of an "extreme" category drought as defined by the folks who define such things (NOAA, USDA, NWS, etc.).

2. Had received virtually no measurable precipitation for the month of January (at least at my house) and no snow whatsoever, and in fact had received no measurable snow at all this winter.

3. Had been wearing shorts around the yard and daydreaming about gardens, turkeys, and fishing (at least I was) due to extended periods of January (and February) temps in the 60s and 70s.


When the residents in my little corner of the state woke up this morning, we...

1. Were under a tornado watch.

2. Had received up to golfball-sized hail (bush-league stuff for a spring storm, but a bit odd on the second day of February...

3. Had received well over three inches of rain, with some areas pushing four inches.

To put that in perspective, my county of residence received just over 13 inches of rain for the whole of 2011. And that's putting a somewhat rosy bloom on things, as the northern parts of the county received less than that (about 12 inches at my house). Areas a bit north and west of my home received far less than even that (6.2 inches for the entire year in some parts of the panhandle).

So in one eight-hour period, in the middle of what used to be called "winter" we received large hail, severe storms, the threat of tornadoes and close to one-third of the total rain we got for all of 2011.

Welcome to the new normal. It's going to be an interesting weather year...