This Has To Be A Record Winter For Oklahoma

I was sitting on my mechanics stool, hunched over my nephews dirt bike, sweating like a stuck pig and I remember thinking "Is winter ever going to show up?" Little did we know, winter would arrive at the eleventh hour on New Years Eve for most of the Sooner State.

While the winter weather may not have made it far enough south to affect us in Lawton, I remember driving through freezing rain on December 31st coming home from my family's place in Northern Oklahoma. As the cold front blew across I-35 in places, the rain would freeze ice onto my windshield and wash it away a mile or two later. It was weird.

How many winter storms did Lawton get in January, three? I think that first was a lot of rain ahead of the front, but the high winds evaporated it all before it could freeze the streets the next morning. No harm, no foul... just really cold and intense winds for a few days.

The second winter January winter storm did give us 2022's first taste of snow. What was it, three or four inches? It came, looked pretty for a day, and melted off leaving the streets clear almost everywhere.

The third winter storm hit with an inch or two of sleet and then dumped four or five inches of snow on top, didn't it? I know the "official" record-keeping amount was lower, but you can't measure accurate totals on the wind-swept prairie that is the airport. I know those conditions lingered for a few days.

Here we are two weeks later, and the normal SWOK winter weather is impending. Ice and freezing rain. We normally catch at least one round of this as winter begins, and another as the season starts to end, but this year Mother Nature saved it for last? Will this be the last? Are we done with winter weather after this?

I'll be honest, I've rediscovered my fondness for hoodies this year, and I'm not looking forward to the day I have to shed these layers. It's so comfortable it's had me looking for jobs in places like Wyoming and Montana the last week or so... not that I'd pack up and leave, but just to see that I'd have that option when we all start melting in the next two months.

I can't remember a winter with this much cold-weather activity in all my years in Oklahoma... this certainly has to be some sort of record, not only statewide, but in home sweet Southwest Oklahoma too.