In affected areas, Suddenlink’s main technical facilities continued to operate and virtually all customers continued receiving service in their homes throughout the storms and their immediate aftermath. At this hour, Enid, Okla., continues to have the most customers affected by commercial power outages. As of 4 p.m. Central Time, the power company in Enid had restored electrical service to an estimated 65 percent of our customers.

If your home has electrical power, but does not have other services, please contact us toll-free at 888-822-5151. Lines or equipment connected to your home may have been damaged by downed trees, tree limbs, or other storm-related factors, and we will diligently and steadily work to address those situations.

I see a scene from window of the truck – without much imagination – that looks like we could be home in Ohio or Indiana. It appears to be rather common winter weather with snow and wind. But here, it is a blizzard warning.

We were detained several days ago due to a short load. We waited through the twenty-four hours as paper towels were made. Finally set free, with thousands of pounds of fresh paper towels in tow, we gave notice to the receiver that we would arrive by two o’clock the next day, Christmas Eve.

At one forty-five p.m., Christmas Eve, we arrived at the empty receiver’s dock.  They had left at one o’clock for the holiday.  So, we parked for the night on an empty, not yet developed, industrial park road.

Today, as I write this, it is Christmas Day. It hasn’t been so bad. We purchased cold cuts and bread at the local Wal-Mart. Sam Walton would not like knowing, however, that the store wouldn’t allow semi parking at the end of their lot. We did it anyhow. We may not have a traditional Christmas dinner today, but we are warm, dry, fed and hydrated. Fed is the key thing.

Back to the weather…the truck is rocking from the wind. Being that I see Oklahoma ranches on three sides of the truck, and the wind has a fury to it, the famous jolly lyrics are stuck in my head, “Where the winds come sweepin’ down the plain.”

Ice pellets are bouncing off the hood of the truck now.

God had a plan for us to spend Christmas here, no doubt. It truly is what and where you make it. Snug as a bug – warmth, love, and happiness.

Rivers of moisture: super-storm systems now span across the globe
February 6, 2011 – This fascinating satellite picture from the Japan Meteorological Agency of the Southern hemisphere perhaps demonstrates better than any other just how the planet’s weather patterns are rapidly morphing. On February 6, 2011, a band of moisture stretched from Australia to Antarctica. Cyclone Yasi’s length spanned the width of the continental U.S. Arkstorm systems, known as Rivers of water, similarly span across the Pacific to California. The recent Ground hog day winter storm system that struck the U.S. was 2100 miles long. Jupiter’s planetary storm has raged for centuries and in 2011, scientists were alarmed to find the super-storm on Saturn had now morphed to stretch across almost an entire hemisphere of the planet. There is no longer any doubt Earth’s climatic patterns are in the midst of major epochal change.

Tropical Cyclone Zaka heads for New Zealand
Posted on February 7, 2011 by The Extinction Protocol
February 7, 2011 – NEW ZEALAND – A Tropical Cyclone named Zaka by the Nadi Weather Office formed close to Tonga early this morning and is now tracking southwest towards the New Zealand area. Duty Forecaster at the Nadi Weather Office confirmed that the system developed rapidly overnight on the outskirts of Fiji waters at around 1 o’clock this morning. He said the system will not have any direct or indirect effect on the Fiji group due to its current location and projected path. The weather office said the system is now in New Zealand’s area of responsibility and they are closely monitoring Tropical Cyclone Zaka.
Timaru, New Zealand sees hottest day ever recorded
February 6, 2011 – NEW ZEALAND – Timaru has broken the record for their hottest day ever with the temperature hitting a scorching 40.3 degrees shortly before 4pm today. The extreme heat, which WeatherWatch.co.nz predicted yesterday, is connected to the same heat wave that saw Sydney climb to 42 degrees yesterday and then recorded their hottest night ever. WeatherWatch.co.nz says Timaru has hovered around 39 degrees for much of the day but peaked at 40.3, breaking their previous record of 39.7 degrees recorded in February 1973. Weather analyst Richard Green says it was a similar Australian/New Zealand heatwave back in 1973 too. “Sydney reached 27.6 as their overnight low last night, beating their record by a whole degree set in February 1973. That same heat wave also hit Timaru in 1973 and again today that record has been broken by point six of a degree”. The heat has been widespread too with WeatherWatch.co.nz readers reporting highs in the late 30s and around the 40 mark this afternoon across Canterbury. Other centres to melt in the heat today were Christchurch, Alexandra, Ashburton, and Oamaru who all reached 36 officially, although private weather stations within Christrchurch were closer to 40. -Voxy.NZ

North Texas Could See More Rolling Blackouts
The rolling outages only lasted a part of one day. Increasing temperatures and power conservation helped lessen the need for continued blackouts. But with North Texas seeing the coldest temperatures in 30 years on Thursday, ERCOT is warning people about the possibility of outages returning.

Officials with ERCOT have predicted record high electricity demands on Thursday morning, perhaps even higher than the demand that was seen last week. The agency has purchased extra generation capacity for the cold snap, but it may not be enough to prevent more rolling outages if demand becomes extreme.

To help prevent more rolling outages, ERCOT has urged Texans to conserve power, and offered some tips for doing so without creating dangerous conditions for yourself or your family. Keep the thermostat as low as possible and dress in layers or use blankets for warmth. Turn off and unplug any appliances that are not in use. Close shades and blinds to prevent losing heat through the windows. Do not use large appliances, like the dishwasher or washing machine, until later in the day.

Temperatures are often at their coldest around 7:00 a.m. and, likewise, the demand for electricity typically peaks between 7:00 a.m. and 8:00 a.m. each morning. It is particularly crucial to conserve power during this hour in order to prevent the rolling blackouts from coming back to North Texas.
read more at ://dfw.cbslocal.com/2011/02/10/north-texas-could-see-more-rolling-blackouts/

Forecasters predicted lows of minus 11 degrees in northwest Arkansas and minus 10 degrees in parts of Oklahoma. But by early morning, temperatures had dipped to minus 18 in Fayetteville and to minus 27 in Bartlesville, Okla., according to the National Weather Service.

In an area of the nation unaccustomed to such snow and subzero temperatures, those numbers had cattlemen such as Paul Marinoni crossing their fingers that pregnant cows won’t give birth during the coldest hours. The newborns could stick to the ground, much like tongues on a flagpole, and die, Marinoni said.
“How do you prevent it?” Marinoni, 70, said from his farm outside Fayetteville. “You can’t.”

He hoped to check on his cows at sunrise, provided he could get to them through the snow. In the meantime, some cows have sprouted fins of icicles down their backs.
“There ain’t no way to keep them warm,” he said.

The frigid temperatures followed a powerful blizzard that howled through the nation’s midsection Wednesday and made its way into the Deep South, where it brought a mix of rain and snow to some areas. The heaviest snow was concentrated in the northeast corner of Oklahoma, where the towns of Colcord and Spavinaw got 22 and 23 inches, respectively. The deepest snow was reported near the village of Jay, with 25 inches.

read more at http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_winter_weather

Freak flash-flood drowns more than 200 sheep in Wales

February 9, 2011 – WALES – A farmer says he is “devastated” after seeing more than 200 of his elite sheep drowned in a flash flood. It is the second time in just over a year that Eryl Morris has been hit by the River Dee bursting its banks. The flood, early on Sunday, has cost him many thousands of pounds and the pride of his flock. Mr. Morris was away in Buckinghamshire helping a sheep farming friend when millions of gallons of water poured on to the rich Bangor-on-Dee grazing land he has farmed for more than a decade. Almost too upset to speak from the south of England yesterday, he said: “I am totally devastated by this – I have lost a hell of a lot sheep.” His wife Glenys said: “It was 12 hours of flash flooding that did the damage and it started about 1am. “When I heard on the radio that Bala was flooded I knew we were in trouble too. “The same thing happened to us in November, 2009, but although we lost some sheep then – about 40-50 – it wasn’t anything like this. “Altogether 230 of our sheep have died and another 70 were saved by the fire service and other people who were going out there in canoes I think. This is a terrible blow, not only because of the cost of losing the sheep, which must run into thousands of pounds, but also the type of animals they were. –The Leader.co.uk

Piers Corbyn has been one of the only guys  getting it right…
Comments from Piers
WeatherAction
Delta House, 175-177 Borough High Street. London SE1 1HR, UK +44207939 9946
From Piers Corbyn +447958713320 http://twitter.com/Piers_Corbyn , piers@weatheraction.com

Tropical Cyclone threats for Australia and simultaneous snow/ thundersnow deluges in N/E USA imminent around 11-12th Feb
Piers Corbyn astrophysicist warned on 8th Jan that the Extra Top Red Weather warning period of 10-12th Feb, announced on 4th Feb is likely to include Tropical Cyclone formation North /East of Queensland as well as renewed snow and thundersnow in North/East USA.
The Tropical Cyclone Formation/Rapid development period 28-31 Jan for likely formation NE of Queensland was dramatically confirmed by TC YASI – simultaneous with massive blizzards in N/E USA also forecasted by Piers Corbyn – see WA News No3 http://www.weatheraction.com/docs/WANews11No3.pdf , following which WeatherAction announced dates for ‘ETs’ – Extreme Top Red Weather Warning periods – in the remainder of Feb: http://www.weatheraction.com/displayarticle.asp?a=305&c=5
“These type of weather patterns are continuing” said Piers; “There are TWO main danger ‘ET’ (Extra Top Red) periods of TC formation &/or severe thunderstorm development in Australia with the first one around 11th-12th Feb and as happened around Jan 31st/Feb 1st we expect simultaneous snow / thundersnow deluges in N/E USA.
The detailed forecast trial statement for this next ET period in Australia is:-

10-13 FEB (esp 11-12th) 2011 ET – Extreme Top Red Period. Formation probability 80%

One or Two Tropical Cyclone Formations likely which could reach TC3 or TC4.

Most probable region NE of Queensland / Coral, Sea landfall / near landfall LIKELY (70%)

Tropical Depression/Cyclone formation is also likely in Southern Indian Ocean NW of Australia.
The full forecasts for Australia/South Indian Ocean and for USA to the end of Feb are available together. Both pdf s are accessed via http://www.weatheraction.com/member.asp – & choose Extreme Events World Exc Europe + Trop Storms.
“Solar-Lunar driven major jet stream and Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone blocking will continue at times through February and indeed the whole of 2011 giving more extreme weather around the world – including further Tropical Cyclone hits and floods in Australia and we will issue forecasts as appropriate”, said Piers.
“The CO2 warmists have failed and will continue to fail to predict anything and are a costly millstone holding-back western economies and world development. These extreme dangerous and costly events are nothing whatsoever to do with so called man-made climate change which is failed pseudo-science based on fraudulent data and which has now morphed into a political cult based on nothing other than blind faith and utterly biased and dishonest media propaganda.”

“The stance of the BBC and certain arrogant and ignorant newspapers has more in common with the Mubarak regime in Egypt than balanced presentation of evidence-based science and as long as they hold sway the advance of science will be held back and the world will increasingly suffer from wasteful profiteering green plunder”.
See also WeatherAction 2011 No1 for lunar effects on Australian floods and WAnews2011 No2 for further general comments and news/new VIDEO links on jet stream etc via: http://www.weatheraction.com/pages/pv.asp?p=wact3&fsize=0 also http://bit.ly/hLigKM for vids.

WeatherAction News & Warning will be published on www.weatheraction.com (eg Comments…. button). Twitter users get immediate links to these warnings

© Weather Action & Piers Corbyn ™ © accept no liability for any loss howsoever arising from use of forecast information. Application of forecasts is entirely at the user’s risk.

http://www.weatheraction.com/displayarticle.asp?a=306&c=5

I even went to bed early last night so I could get the most out of my snow day (adorable right??). I set out early in the morning to document Snowpocalypse 2011 with my video camera, spending half my time trying to figure out how to wear a scarf; because everyone knows in a blizzard, style points are everything right?  Side note about scarves, scarfs, whatever: Is it possible to wear a scarf without looking like you just stepped out of a Twilight midnight release party or a symposium on the literary stylings of James Joyce?  How are you even supposed to wear them? Scarves remain a pretentious mystery to me.  Anywho, when I left my dorm, ski pants on, scarf wrapped awkwardly around my face,  I was prepared for the worst cold I could imagine.  However I, being the warm-blooded Okie I am, had no idea what cold was.

My roommate Allen keeping his cool in the blizzard. Get it. Cool. Snow.

Wind chill at a balmy -15°F with 33 mph wind gusts, and the memory of Saturday’s sunny 77° fresh on my mind, the beautiful campus of Oklahoma State had become a deserted, frozen tundra.  In seconds  had snotcicles in my nose and my sideburns had become iceburns.  But, pocket video camera in hand, I soldiered on, determined to bring the world video evidence of this frozen hellscape.  I went back out with my roommate later and filmed some shenanigans, but yeah, cold the likes of which I have never experienced.  I was legitimately concerned about frostbite. In OKLAHOMA. 

Also, sledding is always worth the risk. Always. This afternoon my roommate Allen and I walked half a mile to a sledding hill, made a snow ramp, and our sledding was so epic that the total strangers around us started filming us.  My motto is do it big, and it isn’t over until the ice melts out of your sideburns.

I’m not sure how much one person can read about snow before they puke, so I’ll end this post now.

-Andrew

P.S. The soundtrack to my snow day is Ben Fold’s Lonely Avenue, great CD.

P.P.S. This was a crappy blog post, I feel like it was more of a diary entry. I’m new to this whole blog thing, so you can just take your judgmental face somewhere else.

Great news, the answer is YES!

Central Oklahoma’s USDA Cold-Hardiness rating is 7a.  This means all plants, in a healthy condition, will be able to withstand temperatures as low as 0 – 5 degrees Fahrenheit.  So, as long as the plant choices you have made for your landscape are rated at least 7a or lower, last week’s weather was not a problem.

Often we are tempted to purchase plant materials with a 7b rating.  7b zone plants will tolerate temperatures only as low as 5 – 10 degrees Fahrenheit.  During many Central Oklahoma winters, 7b plants will survive. But, if you have 7b plants in your landscape, last week’s temperatures may result in some plant damage.  It is best to leave 7b plants to the landscapes south of the Ardmore.

Another contributing factor to freeze damage in plants is the amount of soil moisture available to the root zone when there are low temperatures. One of the worse things for a plant is to be bone dry when a cold front moves through. Because the coldest temperatures arrived after the largest snow fall in Oklahoma City history, there was not a treat of damage due to a dry root zone with this storm.  But, a word of caution, any time we have a forecast of cold temperatures without any moisture, please water your landscape on a nice afternoon before the cold front arrives.

For more information on maintaining a healthy, beautiful landscape give WesternLawns a call at 405.943.4242.

On Christmas morning after gifts and hot chocolate, my husband and I put on many layers of clothes and our yak-tracs (things that keep you from slipping on ice) and went out to build a snowman. My husband, who grew up in Michigan, was much more familiar with this activity than I. The snow was powdery and would not stick, so he filled a gallon sprayer (one for pesticides, I think) with water and he would spray a layer of water and I would pack on a layer of snow. In that way we managed to build a three-tiered snowman.

I added driftwood from Lake Michigan for arms, mittons, a straw hat held on with shish-kabob skewers, two blue bottle caps for eyes, a cork for a nose, English Ivy for ears, and a twig for the mouth. I added a red sash around the neck from my quilting fabrics. Of course we had to take pictures. Here are a couple.

Snowman in Oklahoma City

We were not able to get out at all on Christmas Eve but did manage to drive 8 miles to attend Christmas dinner at a friend’s house on Christmas afternoon. There were many stalled cars abandoned along the way. I have lived here for 12 years and this is the biggest snow we’ve had. I don’t think I like it especially when I have go somewhere in a car. 

This is sooooo un-Oklahoma!

Our drive was greeted by our first experience with an Oklahoma blizzard! Yes, apparently blizzards do exist in Oklahoma, where the wind comes sweeping down the plain. Driving conditions were so terrible that Devon could barely see a few feet in front of him — “white out” as the meteorologists like to say.

We stopped at the Reasor’s in Catoosa to grab an ice scraper and a few other items, and as we were pulling out, the car got stuck in the middle of the highway! Fortunately, a kind lady wearing a Christmas sweater (but no coat) stopped to help us (…Mrs. Claus?);-) We wound up breaking her bunjee cord, rope, and jumper cables trying to pull the car out. And silly me! Without thinking, I wore leather slides out in the snow, so my heels felt like they were frostbitten from trying to push the car out of the snow. After I finally got back in the car, I started “crying uncontrollably” (according to Devon) because I was so cold.

The crying ended as I regained warmth and feeling in my heels, and we continued the treacherous journey over the Port of Catoosa bridge, past the House of Nuts and the QT. Even though Devon can scarcely see the road, he was doing a fantastic job maneuvering the small car. That is, until his bladder took over. He pulled over on a road that was not very hidden and sought deliverance. Even two days later, I am still praying that he is able to give me babies after the chilling experience. Brrrr!

When he got back in the car after creating yellow snow, the car was stuck yet again! (Thank you, Devon’s bladder!) Lucky for us, a Good Samaritan stopped to help push the car out onto the main road.

The rest of the way to the Morris home, Devon and I were praying non-stop. We felt a bit like our missionary friends Vincent and Delia Padupad in the Philippines, who daily face life-challenging circumstances, but who won’t ever let the devil pull them down. We sang plenty of worship songs and prayed in the Spirit until we safely arrived in the neighborhood.

Sadly, the Volvo got stuck in the neighbor’s yard as we were trying to pull in the driveway. But we were just thankful to be safe and sound. The Team Devon and Lindsay love has grown even more through this Christmas Eve adventure!

We’ve been lucky so far, but this is not exactly the White Christmas I dreamed of. Blizzard like conditions. 40-60 mph winds. More snow then I’ve EVER seen in my life.

Nope. Not what I was hoping for. Now just hoping it doesn’t actually ruin Christmas day plans.

::fingers crossed::