2011 provided a year in weather history that won't be forgotten around Oklahoma

TULSA - Most of us have heard stories from our parents and grandparents about how rough it was when they grew up.

They always seem to have a tall tale of how much colder or hotter it was when they were young. Tell your granddad it snowed 10" and he will muse of the day it snowed 40", and they still had to walk to school. 

Well, grandpa, listen to this: We just sweated through the hottest summer ever recorded in Oklahoma .

Calculations just completed by the National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, North Carolina show that during June, July, and August the average temperature in Oklahoma was 86.9 degrees. Not only is that the hottest summer ever recorded in this state, it is the hottest ever for any state in the U.S.!

Here is the breakdown: 

• June's average temp.: 83.6°
• July's average temp.:  89.3°
• August's average temp: 87.9°

July also set the record as the hottest month ever recorded by any state since records began in 1895!  Yes, it has been an amazing year.

I'm now a grandfather of a 10-week-old red-headed Texas girl named Ruby.

In the years ahead, I will try and explain the most amazing weather year I've ever lived through. 
    
We've had record snow, record breaking cold weather, flooding, record drought, earthquakes, tornadoes, then the hottest summer of anywhere in the United States in over 100 years. 

So how will I explain all this?  

I might just have to tell it to her in a bedtime story.  Here is the rough draft:

Once upon a time in a magical land called Green Country the fine people celebrated the new calendar and the beginning of a brand new year.

It didn't take long for the people to know that this was going to be an amazing year.

In February there was a huge snow squall, and the most snow fell in a place called Spavinaw. 

It snowed, 27 inches in just 24 hours. Soon their good spirit was starting to sour.

This broke the record for the most snow that had ever fallen in a single day. The people were not happy with what the weatherman had to say.      

It was so cold in one village that all of the water froze. One morning the thermometer fell to minus 31 degrees, which broke the record for the coldest ever recorded in Oklahoma.

Since there was only ice and no water, they called the town Nowata .

The snow all melted and the spring storms came. Then the largest tornado outbreaks in the land took aim. 178 tornadoes in 16 states, the people now thought winter was tame.
   
The largest hail stones you need to know, fell just two miles north of Gotebo. On May 23rd they were pounded with hail. The largest measured 6 inches they tell.  

July heat refused to yield, and it baked the small town of Grandfield. 68 days of 100° or more. The kids stayed inside and rarely played outdoors.

Every night the weatherman talked about how it was hot, which angered some whether he caused it or not.

October winds came down like water pouring from a hill, and blew through a town called Hectorville. As strong as a baby hurricane, 70 mph winds came.
 
After a cold winter and hot summer the weather seemed to calm, and the people were happy but not for long.

One day without warning the ground began to shake, and good people wondered if this could be an earthquake.

In a region called Shawnee stood a building very tall, but the 5.6 earthquake made some of it fall. 

The people said, " Hey weatherman, is it not bad enough that summer made us roast; now we're shaking like it's the west coast?"

Like a giant walking on the ground, earthquakes happened again and again, soon this weatherman had few friends.

So he had an idea and asked all the people together. He explained that sure, sometimes we do have some bad weather.

But it's the great people that keep us all living in Green Country. The people considered his words then they had to agree.

Then the people were happy and they even cheered. But the weatherman wondered, What might happen next year?

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