Oklahoma Climatological Survey

HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVEDuring day, hot humid air feeds thunderstorm.After sunset, hot humid air stop rising. Rain fallsinto cold air, evaporates and cools.Cooled air plunges, heats up from compressionand hits the ground as hot, dry wind.Wind Speed (mph) Location105 Tipton95 Lawton93 Rush Springs91 Lawton90 Apache87 Marlow80 Cyril80 Lawton80 Lindsay76 Acme76 Rush Springs75 Apache73 Altus70 Chickasha70 Cyril68 Washington64 Hobart62 Fort Cobb61 Tipton60 AcmeThe May 22-23, 1996, HeatburstWhile heatbursts are not a common occurrence, the event insouthwest and central Oklahoma during the night and earlymorning of May 22-23, 1996, was even stranger still. Actuallya series of heatbursts, this event caused over $18 million indamage and one injury as it blasted the area with 105 mph windsand temperatures up to 104 degrees, lasting a full seven hours.The National Weather Service Office in Norman, Oklahoma,noted the event as “gradient enhanced outflow,” and explainedit with the following paragraph:Widespread strong winds due to collapsing thunderstorms hit a largepart of southwestern and portions of central Oklahoma. Comanche,Caddo, Grady, Kiowa, Jackson, Tillman, Cotton, Stephens, McClainand Garvin counties were the hardest hit, from preliminary reports.Numerous power outages due to the strong winds were reportedthroughout southwest Oklahoma.The destruction from the heatbursts was extensive. Over 27,000customers were without power due to toppled power poles. OKLAHOMA CLIMATE SUMMER 2006