The Oklahoma Mesonet says northern Oklahoma’s frigid weather left the region in a deep freeze for more than 5 days as temperatures never rose above freezing. But the 131 hours of sub-freezing temperatures were not a record.
“The cold has been crazy, no? Here we are on day 5-6 of our Arctic deep freeze event (have to go lower-case letters because Feb. 2021 still gets the capitals). Technically, we had 5 sites up in NW OK and the Panhandle hit the above freezing mark yesterday (Tuesday), but in general we are on our 80-130 consecutive hours at or below freezing (and we all know just how painful that can be). Looks like Medford leads the way at 131 hours as I type this,” wrote State Climatologist Gary McManus.
Remember the 2021 Winter Storm Uri? McManus pointed out Tuesday’s minus-15 degree recording in Vinita was the lowest minimum temperature was the lowest reading in Oklahoma since nearly three years ago.
“Now, enjoy your 2-day heat wave, because we have another Arctic front coming down for Friday through the weekend. Not as cold as this last one, but cold nevertheless,” he wrote this week.
There might be just enough shallow cold air left on Sunday night into Monday morning to allow for a little bit of freezing rain or
sleet (looks more like freezing rain). There will be a short window for this, but maybe just enough to cause problems Monday morning.