I always heard when I was young that Jefferson County had suffered more killer tornadoes than any other county in the nation. I haven’t researched that claim enough to say whether it is correct or not. Suffice it to say, we have experienced our share. But when it comes to sheer numbers, the city that has a corner on the tornado market is Oklahoma City. The National Weather Service in Norman recently published some amazing statistics about the city’s tornado climatology.

When an F2 tornado hop scotched across the metro area on November 10th, it was the 114th twister to strike the city since 1890, a period of 115 years. There have been only four periods since 1890 where Oklahoma City has gone more than two years without a tornado. Five tornadoes struck in one day on June 8 , 1974. Two or more tornadoes have occurred inside the city on seventeen different days. The deadliest, and costliest tornado was the F5 from May 3, 1999. It killed 36 and caused over one billion dollars in damage. Despite the fact that nine of the tornadoes have been of the violent variety (F4 or higher,) the May 3 tornado was the first F5. The track of that tornado closely paralleled that of an F4 that occurred on April 25, 1893.

Interestingly, the tornado counts are probably low. Obviously, more tornadoes have been reported since the 1950s. There probably have been even more tornadoes than the report indicates.

The afternoon video update has been posted:

http://beta.abc3340.com/weather/video.hrb

I discuss the flood/severe weather threat for Monday, the cold blast for mid-month, and possibilities for any wintry precipitation beyond that.

Will be in the studio this evening for the 5, 6, and 10:00 weathercasts... tailgate weather has been retired until next September! We had a blast visiting high school stadiums all over this part of the state over the past three months.

I will be looking at data over the weekend and will post thoughts here; Brian Peters will handle the web videos and Bill Murray will have the web forecasts covered as always. Have a great weekend!

Sure is funny watching Little Miss Molly and her PD (Puppy Doctor). Well, not really, because she shakes like a leaf when we take her. She got her rabies shot this morning, plus a complete checkup for things like heartworms. She passed with flying colors. Strangely enough, when we got back in the car, she did not shake. She relates getting in the car with going to the doctor.

Another strange trait. Molly acts like it is her mission to chase away all the cats in the world. However, when we are at the PD's office, there are always a couple of cats (office cats) that are lying around either in a chair or on the service counter. She totally ignores them--will not even look at them. I assume that means that she thinks her responsibility is to get rid of cats only from her Tiny Corner of the World.

We went beddie-bye at 10:30 last night--much earlier than usual. She objected. She is used to going on a "fast-as-a-Cheetah" rampage through the house around 11 at night and she expects a late night ball game or chase.

Lots of frost when we walked early this morning. When she squatted to do her business in the frost-covered grass, she did it in a hurry! It is interesting to observe all of her little rituals. She has a bunch. Too bad a two-year old is already so set in her ways...but life goes on even on frosty mornings.

The morning video is posted:

http://beta.abc3340.com/weather/video.hrb

Friday morning thoughts:

Still looks like a good rain event beginning Sunday. The rain initially will be a stratiform type event (overrunning) on Sunday, and then changing to a shower-storm type event on Monday as we get into the warm sector.

As usual this time of the year, we will have to watch for signs of this becoming a flood threat, a severe weather threat, or both. I still do not think this will be as potent as the pre-Thanksgiving system which produced a dozen tornadoes across central Alabama. Latest model runs slow the system down a bit, and the main threat of strong or severe storms would come on Monday.

Beyond that, no real confidence in the model output. I don't like the solution the GFS throws out toward the end of next week, nor do I like the mid-month look. The pattern still favors some pretty cold air coming at us in the December 15-20 time frame...

Headed up to Warror to see the kids at Warrior Elementary... will be back in the studio by early afternoon and will have the afternoon video posted by 3:00 or so!