Anyone who worked outdoors in Oklahoma’s energy industry experienced some record weather instances over the past year.
The Oklahoma Mesonet reviewed some of the 2018 records compiled by State Climatologist Gary McManus.
The lowest wind chill recorded in the past year was minus 22.1 degrees at Eva in the Panhandle on January 16, 2018. The greatest 24-hour temperature change occurred April 17 in Alva when the temperature went from a high of 110.6 degrees to 32.7 degrees.
Grandfield had the honors for the highest temperature—113 degrees on July 19, 2018. Pawnee had the highest heat index of 120.5 recorded on the same day.
“Another year (mostly) in the books, and another 365 days of 120 lonely Mesonet sentinels standing in fields, keeping watch over Oklahoma’s tumultuous weather,” wrote McManus. “And what a year it was, with Oklahoma’s normal extremely extreme weather coming at a steady pace, in between periods of extreme extremely normal tranquility.”
How about record rainfall?