01.26.10
Upcoming Ice Storm
This week the National Weather Center is buzzing with talk of the winter storm Oklahoma is expecting Thursday and Friday. I am not looking forward to experiencing yet another ice storm, but it will be interesting to see just how this one pans out. Initially the models seemed to show that we might get a bit of snow in central Oklahoma, but now there is concern that the low to mid-levels may warm up enough to where we get a significant ice event. Right now the National Weather Service is predicting that Norman will get about 1/4″ of ice and 2-6″ of sleet and snow! It looks like a sure bet that classes will be canceled on Friday and probably Thursday as well. Stay tuned.
Regarding last weekend’s severe weather, there were a number of high wind reports that verified the slight risk for severe weather that SPC issued, but no tornadoes. I believe there was enough shear, but I don’t think that the instability was great enough to create strong enough updrafts for large hail and tornadoes.
On a side note, I’ve decided to get back to learning more programming. It’s something I’ve dabbled in from time to time, but I’d like to keep up with practicing as much as possible. I’ve got some working knowledge of C and Perl, but I’m also trying to learn Python and Visual Basic, the two key languages used in programming GIS software.