theadanews.com - Ada, Oklahoma

Local News

Related Photos

  • Spooky looking clouds and rain moved through Pontotoc County Wednesday morning bringing much needed rain. Lightning and some small hail were reported in Allen and Stonewall. While the storm looked like a spring-type severe storm, cooler ground temperatures would not produce the energy needed for a severe weather outbreak, officials said. Richard R. Barron

    Stormy Weather
February 2, 2012

Hail, rain surprise county residents

Gene Lehmann Managing Editor The Ada News

Ada —  

Pontotoc County was on the receiving end of a fast-moving thunderstorm Wednesday morning.

Pea-sized hail was reported in Allen and Stonewall. Lightning flashed and .06 inches of rain caused puddles to form which migrating gold finches quickly discovered to quench their thirst.

Quarter-sized hail about 10 miles north of Ada was reported to the National Weather Service in Norman, Bruce Thorten, NWS meteorologist, said Wednesday afternoon.

Ada can expect more of the same today and into Friday evening, Thorten said. While the storms look threatening, Thorten said cooler ground temperatures would deny storms needed energy to produce severe weather.

It was almost a year ago the coolest temperature ever recorded in Oklahoma occurred. The -30 degree weather hit the Nowata area in northern Oklahoma near Bartlesville.

That’s not what’s happening now, however. Thorten — when asked if winter was ever going to arrive in the Ada area — said long-range forecasts show above average temperatures sticking around for a while.

“As a matter of fact, most of the nation is expected to see above normal temperatures,” Thorten said.

He pointed to the La Nina effect from the Pacific Ocean with sparing Oklahoma wintry weather it has experienced the last two years. La Nina represents a cooling of Pacific Ocean waters. Usually with a La Nina in place, the northwestern part of America will experience wintry weather while the Plains remain relatively unscathed, he said. “There have been near-record snowstorms in Oregon and Washington states. While it isn’t La Nina entirely, there is nothing in the forecast that would dislodge the bitterly cold temperatures we’re seeing in Alaska and Siberia to force them into our area,” Thorten said.

Usually, Oklahoma will experience its worst winters — and severest weather — when an El Nino warms Pacific Ocean waters.

In the last 24 hours, area communities received the following amounts of rain:

Ada .06

Fittstown .21

Vanoss .01

Sulphur .01

Byars .06

Centrahoma .06

 

Text Only
Local News