Aside from being culturally advanced, Oklahoma also has another unique characteristic: it’s volatile weather.

For example, we had a high of 80 degrees yesterday afternoon, and the temperature has done nothing but drop since. Our low tonight is predicted to be 28 degrees. We have many days during the winter when we wake up to the high for the day.

Why?

Well, Oscar Hammerstein II got it right: the wind comes sweepin’ down the plain. In the wintertime, these winds produce wind chills as much as 30 degrees lower than the actual temperature. I bet you all thought the Chicago, a.k.a. the Windy City, was the windiest city in the U.S.?

Nope. That would be Oklahoma City, OK. Tulsa is only slightly less windy because it is not as flat and we have more trees.

So, while yesterday afternoon we had warm, balmy 13 MPH breezes from the southwest, this afternoon we have bone-chilling 14 MPH winter winds from the north. Hmmm…last time we had 28 degree lows, the outside looked like this:

Of course, that time, we woke up to 70 degrees and rain, and by the time we went to bed it was 30 degrees and sleet. This is a picture of my parents’ driveway. That storm knocked out their power for two weeks. Picture two 60-plus-year-old goats in an all electric modular home in rural Oklahoma with no power…which in addition to no lights, no heat, no TV and no computer, means no water thanks to their ELECTRIC pump system on their well. Oh – and no flushing the toilet, either.

Thankfully, it’s not raining this time. But wasn’t the ice pretty?