According to the National Weather Service, the big snowstorm Tulsa has in 2011 was the second biggest on record behind 1958.

We had 22.5 inches of snow in February of 2011. That’s a lot. Tulsa has 29.6 inches of snow in the year 1958.

We had 10 inches of snow in February of 2021 and only 2.4 inches in 2020.

Normally, Tulsa gets 1.9 inches of snow in January, 2.4 inches of snow in February and 1.9 inches of snow in March. Plus, we get .8 of an inch on average in November and 1.7 inches in December.

I can remember when we had a big snowstorm with 11.8 inches of snow in 1968. As I recall, it happened on a Sunday night. Our family was at church (I think it was a mission conference) and it only started to snow after the meeting started.

We lived less than a block from the church and I remember being shocked at how much snow had fallen while we were inside. Back then, TV stations didn’t have meteorologists and the weathermen didn’t have access to much advance information for forecasts.

My brothers and I had fun making our way through the snowdrifts back to the house. Some fellow church members couldn’t make it home. One family spent the night in a convenience store because the roads were blocked with snow.

We lost power at our house during the 2011 snowstorm. Fortunately, we have a natural gas fireplace. We stayed with our kids in the living room for a few days while we waited for the big thaw.

We did manage to navigate through the snow to deliver our newspapers to the Postal Center. We mail to our subscribers and the papers were late that week because the postmen were delayed. No one called to complain because they knew that no one was moving around much.

At one point in the power outage, we unplugged our computers and went to our church, which still had power, and worked on the paper. I have since bought a generator. We have two refrigerators and a freezer. I want to be able to keep those going (in cold weather or stormy weather outages). I haven’t had to use it so far (although I run it every month to keep it tuned up).

We have plenty of flashlights and batteries. We have some lanterns that we have used in the past and we have a propane camp stove that we could use if needed. We keep extra cases of bottled water  and we have some reliable water filters that would help a lot in an outage. Some people don’t realize that if the city can’t pump tap water, if you have a hot water tank, you’ve got at least 30 gallons of drinkable water on hand. That would see you through several days of interrupted service.

When I see a forecast for bad weather, I fill up the gas tank of both of our cars. We keep our pantry stocked pretty well (partly due to the Chinese coronavirus pandemic and partly because you save money when you buy in bulk.)

Our modern meteorologists are pretty accurate and when they predict a big snowstorm or ice storm, panic buying hits the grocery stores (and liquor stores). In 2011, I went into Reasors at 71st Street and Sheridan Road to pick up a few items. This was before the big storm hit. The parking lot was full. There were no shopping carts available. The produce section was half empty. All the milk and bread was gone and about a third of the canned food shelves were empty.

By the way, in early 2021, we had some ice on our porch and we could not find any ice melt to put down so people wouldn’t slip. A few months ago, we bought some ice melt and it sure came in handy earlier this month. We also bought a snow shovel a few years ago. It was helpful last year when a couple couldn’t get their car moving due to snow in front of our house. We loaned the shovel and they were on their way.

A snow fall is beautiful. And in Tulsa, snow doesn’t linger too long. It’s usually gone in a week.

A friend spent several weeks in Detroit, Michigan, one winter. He said it snowed and it never seemed to melt. In fact, the snow just got dirtier and dirtier.

I like living someplace with four distinct seasons. I love Florida but I would miss the occasional snowfall that we have in Tulsa.

And it’s a big plus that we only have record snowfalls about every 10 years.