Potential Ice Storm!

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mfolta1

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tulsa okla.
Latest data to come out is putting Tulsa or just south of in the bulls eye! Wow this storm is getting more interesting by the hour.

Just remember that I, yours truly am an expert debris cleanup professional, so when you need limbs removed asap call Folta! 918 627 7348 Tulsa only. I dont get up in trees and all but I remove downed branches etc. Special rates for cough,cough 911 dispatchers who have to train/put up with Phill......heh!
 
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woodyrr

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Midwest City, OK
Here we go!

For what it's worth, it's started here in Central Oklahoma.

I've been listening to AR 1 and AM 1 and heard the accident reports start in Purcell, and march up I-35 through Norman, then Moore.

Midwest City is now working accidents at I-40 at Hudiburg Dr. and SE 29th St. and Post Rd.
 

peterjmag

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Tulsa, OK
Good Morning! It's 23 degrees here at Oklahoma State University in beautiful Stillwater, Oklahoma and yes the freezing rain is falling. Let the party begin!
 

n5usr

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What a mess... I just came home from work, about 11 miles cross-town OKC. (I wanted to avoid the rush this afternoon!) The roads and I-40 are *passable*, but it sure wouldn't take much to make them not. And it sure didn't look like any sanding / salting had taken place. Fortunately, *most* people are driving sanely - I-40 was going about 35 MPH through town - although the usual crop of idiots who think their SUVs are invincible were present.

I didn't actually have any trouble until I got into my driveway. Typical drive, with a slight slope to the street. I parked, and when I looked down to climb out of the truck noticed I was sliding backward! :p Finally got a patch where the tires would grip the pavement, but the whole drive is a beautifully smooth skating rink! Had a heck of a time getting to the front door... Bet a lot of people bust their backsides when they get home tonight!

Had a lady at work who went to Wal-Mart at lunch. Making a turn to leave and come back, she hit the curb and destroyed one wheel. While waiting for a wrecker, she was hit by someone else doing the same thing! The wrecker said they'd be there in 5 hours!

OHP has been BUSY all day. As, I'm sure, has everyone else - OHP is just what's easy for me to listen to at work. I do know EMSA's been busy too - I heard one officer who had to wait *two hours* to get an ambulance at his accident scene, and Bethany has just had a long wait for one as well.

But so far, no ice on the power lines far as I can tell. That's good! :)
 

n5usr

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Oh, goodness! Just heard an OHP unit who said he has two sand trucks on his scene, but it's so slippery they can't move!

Another just asked for an on-ramp to be closed by the city because cars are stuck at the top of the ramp... "...and looks like I'm gonna be one of them."
 

Secret_Squirrel

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Multiple crashes all over the Tulsa metro right now. I heard some chatter about a crash involving a TCSO vehicle a few minutes ago too.
 

Freqed

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The Calls for sand are more than can be handled. City has closed 169 North bound from about 96th street south to the BA interchange. Also Highway 75 and 71st is now getting impassable (71st part) and call keep pilling up!
 

Freqed

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Troop L Trooper fell at Accident scene and cut his head open, holding towel on it as he drives to Claremore hospital....
 

mfolta1

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tulsa okla.
anyone hear of the fatality in miami okla? my brother saw it, said there was a body laying face down in the road. i never heard anymore from that area on the scanner but i may have missed the traffic while listening to tulsa and troop b.

Well its 3 am and a new band of heavy precip has just developed in northern lincoln co. looks like the worst may be yet to arrive here in tulsa.

also noticed something weird on the mesonet, its like the anemometers are frozen because all along the i-44 corridor the mesonet sites are not showing any wind and i know the wind is blowing. when you get n/west and s/east the mesonet shows wind speed just fine.
 

Secret_Squirrel

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also noticed something weird on the mesonet, its like the anemometers are frozen because all along the i-44 corridor the mesonet sites are not showing any wind and i know the wind is blowing. when you get n/west and s/east the mesonet shows wind speed just fine.

Funny you mention that, here's what today's Ticker had to say:

The Law of Unintended Obsequences

As the threat of icing continues to threaten the region, here are a
couple of Mesonet "rules of thumb" for winter watching. These work
most of the time (but certainly not all the time) for winter weather.

First of all, it turns out that wind sensors, mounted at 10 meters
(about 33 feet) will often grind down to zero wind speeds as they take
on ice. In this way, they can serve as a "canary in the coal mine"
to indicate elevated icing. Actually, it's probably more accurate to
say that they serve as a "bird on a wire", because elevated icing
can wreak havoc on power grids and limbs (that impact power grids).

Here's an example from earlier this afternoon:

http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20090126/current.wx.gif

Notice that the Mesonet Quality Assurance staff has removed the wind
obs from a swath south of the Oklahoma City area. These sensors had
already taken on some ice at map time.

This map is updated every five minutes at:

http://www.mesonet.org/data/public/mesonet/maps/realtime/current.wx.gif

Closer to the ground, the rain gauge can indicate whether precip is
freezing at about knee level (the height of Mesonet rain gauges).
Checking a meteogram can help. Here's an example from the Vanoss
Mesonet station, as of 3:30 pm:

http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20090126/VANO.met.gif

Notice that the wind sensor (at 33 ft) stopped producing meaningful
numbers at about noon. However, precipitation (green trace) continued
to increase after noon, which indicates that at least some of the
precip was still flowing through the rain gauge (about 18 inches high).

Taken together, the meteogram hints (but certainly not definitively)
that ice may be accruing on elevated structures (limbs, wires), but
not yet accumulating on ground-level surface.

Meteograms are also updated every 5 minutes at the Mesonet web page:
Oklahoma Mesonet

Of courses, bridges and overpasses have their own rules and will
freeze LONG before ground surfaces.
 

n5usr

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Bethany, OK
Hm, that's pretty cool. I guess that means my "bird on a wire" says things may be okay around me, as far as the power lines are concerned. My anemometer is still reading! It's not quite 33 feet high, but close. No idea how much precip, though - my rain gauge isn't heated so hasn't measured a thing.

I haven't gone out to try driving yet (and if I'm lucky won't have to - depends on whether the jobsite I was supposed to go to this morning decides to shut down) but I couldn't believe the weather guy on channel 4 spent so much time talking about how much better the traction was this morning. Each time he did this, he'd qualify it all with a brief "but the roads are still bad, don't go if you don't have to".

Looks like the precip will be tapering off this morning for me (west side of OKC) so things should be improving over the course of the day... Hope it doesn't get too miserable up toward Tulsa!
 
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