Monthly Climatological Summary
Norman 3SE, Cleveland Co., OK (Lat 35^10'57"N, Lon 97^25'27"W, elev 1130)
January 2002
------------------------------------------------------------------
Temperature Precipitation Snow AM PM
Max Min Water Snow Depth Wx Wx
------------------------------------------------------------------
01 39.7 21.2 .00 0.0 T BKN BKN
02 29.3 14.0 T T T -SN SCT
03 36.5 10.8 .00 0.0 T SKC SKC
04 44.1 25.0 .03 0.0 0 BKN -RA
05 48.4 37.4 .20 0.0 0 -RA BKN
06 48.7 31.1 .00 0.0 0 SKC BKN
07 44.1 22.3 .00 0.0 0 SCT SCT
08 65.1 32.7 .00 0.0 0 BKN BKN
09 70.3 42.1 .00 0.0 0 BKN SCT
10 56.1 42.3 .00 0.0 0 OVC BKN
11 54.5 31.1 .00 0.0 0 SKC SKC
12 52.5 32.0 .00 0.0 0 SKC SKC
13 57.9 32.7 .00 0.0 0 BKN FEW
14 52.0 30.4 .00 0.0 0 SKC SKC
15 59.4 27.1 .00 0.0 0 SCT BKN
16 53.2 38.7 .00 0.0 0 OVC SCT
17 45.0 30.0 .00 0.0 0 OVC SCT
18 36.0 27.9 .13 T 0 OVC -RA PL
19 45.1 30.4 .02 0.0 0 -DZ SCT
20 53.8 30.6 .00 0.0 0 BKN FEW
21 59.2 25.5 .00 0.0 0 SKC SKC
22 69.6 43.9 .00 0.0 0 BKN FEW
23 60.1 38.7 .84 0.0 0 -TSRA +TSRA
24 49.3 28.2 .00 0.0 0 BKN SKC
25 55.2 23.5 .00 0.0 0 SKC SKC
26 62.1 32.4 .00 0.0 0 SKC FEW
27 66.2 39.0 .00 0.0 0 BKN BKN
28 70.7 47.7 .00 0.0 0 BKN BKN
29 60.4 33.4 .06 0.0 0 OVC -SHRA
30 34.9 31.8 1.38 0.0 0 -RA RA
31 34.9 27.5 .13 T 0 SHRA -SN
KEY TO AM/PM WX: SKC - sky clear, FEW - few clouds, SCT -
partly cloudy, BKN - mostly cloudy, OVC - overcast, RA -
rain, SHRA - rain shower, TSRA - thunderstorm with rain,
DZ - drizzle, PL - ice pellets, SN - snow.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Means and Totals for January 2002
------------------------------------------------------------------
Average Maximum Temperature: 52.1
Average Minimum Temperature: 31.0
Mean Temperature: 41.5
Maximum Temperature: 70.7 (1-28-02)
Minimum Temperature: 10.8 (1-03-02)
Days with max temperature 90.0F+: 0 Year: 0
Days with max temperature <32.0F: 1 Year: 1
Days with min temperature <32.0F: 18 Year: 18
Days with min temperature <0.0F: 0 Year: 0
Precipitation: 2.79 Year: 2.79
Greatest one-day precipitation: 1.38 (1-30-02)
Snowfall: T Year: T
Greatest one-day snowfall: T (1-31-02)
Maximum snow depth at midnight: T (1-01-02)
Days with measureable pcpn: 8 Year: 8
Days with pcpn 1.00"+: 1 Year: 1
Days with measureable snowfall: 0 Year: 0
Days with snowfall 1"+: 0 Year: 0
Days with glaze ice: 0 Year: 0
Days with damaging wind: 0 Year: 0
Days with hail: 0 Year: 0
Days with thunderstorms: 1 Year: 1
Days with fog: 0 Year: 0
NOTICE: All temperatures are in degrees Fahrenheit and all precipitation values in inches. Snowfall totals denoted by an asterisk indicate hail.
Summary....Aside from a very cold start to the month, Jan 2002 was mostly warm and dry for central Oklahoma. Very little in the way of precipitation fell during the first three weeks of the New Year, causing the fire danger throughout the western half of the state to rise to very high levels. A midday thunderstorm on the 23rd brought a little bit of drought relief to the immediate Norman area but left most of the OKC area fairly dry. Significant widespread rainfall did not occur across the state until the final few days of the month. For locations north and west of Interstate 44, this rain was not exactly welcome as it fell while temperatures were below freezing. By month's end, virtually the entire northwestern half of the state was coated with 2 to 4 inches of ice which caused thousands of trees and power lines to collapse. Many of the trees that collapsed were 50 to 100 years old. As of this writing (Feb 5) there were still tens of thousands of people in northwestern Oklahoma without power due to the ice storm and dozens of school districts have been out of school for an entire week. Norman was extremely lucky to have totally escaped this ice storm, but we didn't escape it by much as the southern extent of the freezing rain was just 7 miles from us!
Jan 2002 was considerably drier and colder in Turlock CA than it had been in previous months. A total of 1.66 inches of precipitation fell there during the month, bringing the season total there to 8.57 inches. Included in that precip total was a trace of SNOW on the 29th - the first snowfall in Turlock since Dec 20, 1998. A fairly heavy snow shower struck locales east and southeast of Turlock that morning, with enough snow to cover the ground in places like Denair, Delhi, and Ballico. The day before that, snow pellets fell in Ceres and Ballico - in Ballico they fell heavily enough to cover the pavement! The only time I ever saw snow covering the ground in all the years I lived in Turlock was on Feb 4, 1989 - in other words this isn't exactly something that happens all the time there.
With all of the cold and unusual weather Turlock had the last week of the month, it would seem this was a good week for my mom to leave Turlock to visit Hawaii. But it wasn't exactly a good week to visit Hawaii either. Parts of the Big Island saw some amazing rainfall totals while she was there. On the 29th, Hilo had 12.19 inches of rain.....which is about 4 months worth of rain for Norman and a year's worth of rain for Turlock. Not even Ben Lomond or Boulder Creek has seen that much rain in a single day (although they've come pretty close). Fortunately my mom spent most of the trip on the Kona side of the island....although it rained a lot there too it didn't fall in nearly as copious quantities as it did on the Hilo side.