NJ_Ken

Steady freezing rain again here on the north side of OKC with some rumbles of thunder. Temperature is 30 F which will likely save us. It is warm enough to limit ice accretion.

An extremely rare (and pretty amazing) weather phenomenon in okc tonight. The cold north wind across Lakes Hefner and Overholser is creating a narrow streamer of lake effect snow south of each lake. It's not Buffalo or anything but, as I understand, close to an inch of snow has accumulated in bands 1/4 mile wide and 8 to 10 miles long.

Just got home driving from the far south side of OKC to the far north side of OKC, mostly on Lake Hefner Parkway. All roads (including highways) had a solid coating of sleet. Traffic was slow but moving. Clearly, a lot of people started plotting their escape from work as soon as the precip kicked off so 3 pm seemed like the height of rush hour. As I got close to home, it seemed like freezing rain was starting to mix back in. If so... and if that continues... I would expect that roads will go from kind of crappy to absolutely horrendous in very short order.

It sure looks like that mass of heavy precipitation has it sights set on Tulsa. If not Tulsa, somebody very close to Tulsa is going to get walloped. This is definitely one of those times to pray for sleet rather than freezing rain.

I can verify this. I am on the south side at the moment running an errand. 100% sleet and coming down at a pretty good clip. The ride home looks to be... umm... interesting. I should be able to get a pretty good idea of how good or bad the roads are across the metro.

Precip started on the north side of OKC at around 12:20pm. It has been light but steady. For the first few minutes it was only freezing rain but sleet quickly began to mix in. I would say it is a 50-50 mix right now.

It is a really, REALLY raw, cold day out there. It is 22 F here and the wind just cuts right through you. Nothing is falling from the sky yet, but it's close. You can feel it. FYI, it sounds like sleet rather than freezing rain has been the predominant precipitation for everybody to our south and west. I don't know if that will translate all the way here or toward Tulsa and beyond but I suspect it will.

In OKC, we had multiple 30-degree rises and drops in the last 24 hours, and that 30-drop this morning happened in minutes. I've never seen anything like it.

All is quiet here. We are now getting occasional freezing drizzle but nothing more. The freezing drizzle has been perfect for turning sleet-covered back roads (and car windshields) into a half-inch thick sheet of ice. Arterial streets are mostly just wet. Still, I think the evening rush is going to be a mess. Because this event slipped through the cracks, a lot of people who typically stay home whenever there is snow or ice went to work. They are going to have a terrible time of it driving home. Worst of all, it would appear that a last round of precip is incoming now for Moore and Norman just in time for the evening rush. When sleet is in the mix, it is sometimes tricky to determine if the radar is showing heavy precipitation or just light sleet that is reflecting back strongly, but it could be a pretty good wallop for them.

32 F here in OKC and still raining, occasionally fairly heavy. Nothing seems to be freezing... yet, but it looks to be darn close. Thank God for those few minutes in the 60s early this am. So far, that has been our saving grace. Edit: I should add that NWS has pushed today's advisories another tier of counties southward. It now includes all of the OKC metro. I suspect somebody just north and/or west of me is getting it good. I am at 32 F but the next mesonet sites to my north and west are in the mid 20s F and it looks to be raining at both of those sites too. Edit #2: LOL. I need to look out the window more often. As I was typing in that last edit, we went over to moderate sleet here. My car actually has a half-inch or so of sleet on it already.

The front has been literally hovering in my backyard all night. It was 44 F when I went to bed. It is now 68 F. El Reno and Guthrie, both less than 30 miles away, are at 37 F! Edit: and just like that, the front is heading south again. Literally minutes later, it is back down to 37 F in my backyard on the north side of OKC. Edit #2: Wow. A thunderstorm popped up just to our west and it is nasty out there. 34 F with hail and a few rumbles of thunder.

I may never get used to relative lack of snow here in Oklahoma, but I will say this: They sure know how to do a cold front. 63 F at 2 pm this afternoon; 53 F at 4 pm; 37 F now.

Yikes. Here in OKC, it was around 50 F when I first stepped outside this morning at around 6 am. As of right now, it is 27 F. That's darn near a 25-degree drop in 3.5 hours at the same time the sun was coming up.

We are finally seeing some steadier snow here on the north side of Oklahoma City. I don't think it is heavy enough to be officially moderate but definitely on the heavier side of "light snow". No accumulations yet. EDIT: I hit "save" and looked back outside, and now it has edged up into moderate snow. If the radar is to be believed, it won't last long but it looks darn nice out there right now.

Watching the local news here in OKC, and they breathlessly reported that they had a storm spotter driving west into what looks like an impressive snow band heading this way (and eventually to points north and east). The spotter's report: nothing..... literally not a flake reaching the ground. Me thinks it is time to put a fork in this one, folks. At least in this part of the world.

The radar... at least around here in Central OK... was very deceiving. We've had extremely light.... I mean REALLY light... snow for a few hours. No accumulation at all on the far north side of town. I ran some errands over the past hour (and detoured a bit to see how things looked a bit closer to downtown where radar returns looked pretty respectable. It was snowing a bit harder down that way (still REALLY light) but there no accumulation there either other than a barely perceptible coating on parked cars. There was a bit of light sleet mixing in and presumably that accounted for the good looking radar returns. Oh well. Maybe this final band is the real deal.

Far north side of Oklahoma City here (near Quail Springs Mall for those familiar with the city). Temperatures have been hovering right at freezing for much of the day. Right now, I am showing 31.5 F. Dew points are in the mid-20s. Driving home from work (about 45 minutes ago), I saw a couple of wet snow flakes and a couple of sleet pellets mixed in with mostly rain in a passing shower. The rain did not seem to be freezing on anything at that point, but the sun has now set so anything new, if it isn't already frozen, is likely to freeze, at least on elevated surfaces. Right now, nothing is falling but the radar is suddenly showing a bit of weather incoming and likely to be overhead any minute. If it reaches the ground, I am very curious what the p-type will be. EDIT: NWS is now saying Chickasha, which is 35 miles or so to my southwest, is getting light snow. That would seem to answer the p-type question here.... if anything reaches the ground in this first batch. EDIT #2: Around 7:30 pm now. We've been getting really light snow... literally an occasional flake floating by... for about 90 minutes. No accumulation. Roads wet. According to the radar, heavier stuff is falling... and this is not an exaggeration... 5 miles south of me. If I can get out and about in the next few hours, I will see if the radar was deceiving.

But look on the bright side, my Eagles have the best record in the NFL.