Category Archives: Skywatch Friday

Tulsa Wind Storm 2023

We had a horrendous wind storm hit northeastern Oklahoma at about midnight last Saturday. Straight winds of 100 mph were recorded and our family, and the dog and cat, were in our “safe space” for not very long.

We didn’t suffer any damage at all although we are getting our roof inspected and might have some tree work to do. Our neighborhood didn’t have much damage either except for trees down. All I can say is thank goodness for underground utilities.

Elsewhere in Tulsa it was a different story. Over 200,000 people lost power. By now over half those have it back and it has been a great response from other states sending their utility crews here to help get power restored. They think that they will have everybody hooked back up by late Saturday afternoon.

Turkey Mountain had a lot of damage. Volunteers got out there with their chain saws and got a lot of the trails cleared. I don’t do chainsaws but I moved some limbs off the trails as I found them.

There are still some “hangers” or “leaners” that will have to be removed by people that know what they are doing. Best to keep an eye up in the air to avoid hazards.

The sounds of chainsaws were all over the place when I made my outing the other day.

Reportedly by now almost all the main trails are open.

Of course it is difficult to pin any particular weather event on global warming but still one wonders. Something new I’ve seen in the last few days is “#ShowYourStripes” a graphic developed by Ed Hawkins at the University of Reading in England. It’s like a bar code showing the yearly variation of temperature from the long term average over a time period.

The global temperature change chart is as follows. Blue means below the long term average and orange is above. The darker the color, the more difference there is. So this is the Global stripes showing data from 1850 and one can definitely see that things are warming up quickly. Keep in mind it is just temperature data and doesn’t say anything why.

**Created by Ed Hawkins of University of Reading, Creative Commons License**

So, I jumped in and looked at the Oklahoma data which they have from 1895 and the results surprised me. Oklahoma has had ups and downs over the whole time period. Although there is a definite trend since the year 2000. But there was a previous period back in 1930 or so that had increasing temperatursewhich roughly coincides with the dustbowl.

I find this kind of thing fascinating. Go check it out for your continent, country, state or province at ShowYourStripes.Info. Let me know what you find.

Linking with Skywatch Friday

Suburban Adventuring to Stokely Event Center

Last week, son had a meeting to attend at our church. I’m always looking for a side trip for such things. There was an urban bike trail I wanted to explore and it was adjacent to where he was meeting. So I took my back and saddled up.

First part of the trail was nice. Nice and wide, protected from traffic and in good shape. (Sorry about the photo quality, I was using my generic go pro mounted on my bike and it was taking a photo every ten seconds.)

That lasted about a mile and then…

On to a sidewalk for me. Bicyclists are not suppose to ride on sidewalks but nobody else was using them so why not?

Got to a place where I could cross the busy highway. It took about five to ten minutes for a big enough gap opened up where I could get across the street safely. On the return trip I used a crosswalk at an intersection.

I was in a commercial area for most of the rest of the trip. I was marked as a bike route along with lots of helpful, but ignored, “Share the Road” signs. Actually everybody was pretty nice about it and gave me plenty of room.

And then back on a trail. There is an outdoor advertising company that owns an event center, Stokely Event Center. At the event center they have all sorts of vintage outdoor signs. Inside they have lots of neon signs. We have been to several events there and they do a great job. Very good hosts who are generous of the time and amenities that they provide. No nickel and diming. Check the link above.

They have huge billboards with painted replicas of old signs from Tulsa’s past. The billboards front a freeway intersection but you can’t really study them ripping by at 65 mph. The bike trail I was on also fronts them so I was able to go and check them out.

That was the whole purpose of my trip. Oh I could have driven and parked closer and walked on the trail but that’s no fun!!

Mission accomplished. So I just turned around and went back in time to pick up the kid.

Here is a map of my route. I learned a bunch for next time, except there probably will not be a next time.

Here’s a video of my adventure. I had a blast all though it was not what I would call a relaxing ride.

Linking with Skywatch Friday

Skywatch Friday – On the Trails

I went on a bike ride recently on Tulsa’s RiverParks Trails alongside the Arkansas River. I love the trails because one can ride for miles and miles without crossing a street. I took along my cheap GoPro clone camera that I have had for years. It takes a bad photo ever ten seconds. I end up deleting almost all the bad photos but I keep a few and run them through Adobe Lightroom to make highly edited bad photos. I kind of like them actually.

I like how the camera and then Lightroom distorts the colors. I also like it when people are involved so they are kind of like street photos but on a trail.

To me these photos capture of sense of not just solitude but aloneness like everybody else in the world has disappeared.

Familiar scenes seem vacant.

On the other hand this looks like a guy out for a run.

I also brought a “good camera” a lightweight superzoom and took a couple shots across the river. This building is the River Spirit Casino.

And this one is a collection of office buildings that used to be the Oral Robert University medical school and hospital.

So if you are on the Tulsa River Parks and see an overweight old guy on a bicycle with a go pro clone mounted on his handlebars smile real big!

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday.

Get Away to Southeast Oklahoma

May be an image of 3 people — ***Heather, Logan, Kodi, and Me, left to right***

The family went on a little mini vacay this week down to Beavers Bend State Park in southeast Oklahoma.

We stayed in a nice cabin

Went on one big hike and a smaller hike.

Kayaking for me and Logan, and Standup Paddleboard for Heather on Broken Bow Lake.

Kodi went with us on the shorter hike along the Mountain Fork River.

He got a little intro into swimming in a river.

Some fire pit time for everybody.

Checking out a partial moon.

We had a great time. More to come.

Skywatch Friday

Skywatch Friday – At Home, On the Road, Trail, and

A shot from the front yard during a rainy interlude.

My wife and Kodi the pomeranian on a walk in the neighborhood greenbelt. I love the orangey sky.

I went on a bike ride on the Osage Prairie Trail in Osage County. This gas station was a location for the movie “The Outsiders” filmed way back in the 1980s. It has been restored by some volunteers and has a sign, fake gas pumps, paint inside and out and geocache. Which I found. One of my geocacher friends had a big role in the restoration.

This is a pond in Skiatook at the northern end of the Osage Prairie Trail.

A nearby church is having a revival!

The old railroad bridge on the trail is a favorite spot of mine for photos.

Switching Gears, this is a scene from Turkey Mountain on a recent hike.

And a shot from the RiverParks trails in Tulsa. I wasn’t hiking or biking, I was handing out gallons and gallons of coca cola and red bull to exhausted runners slogging through the Tulsa Ironman competion. 141 miles combined of swimming in open water, an over 100 mile bike ride, and a marathon distance run. It was a warm day. They had a 70 mile race for wimps.

I’m kidding about the half distance people being wimps. I couldn’t do it in a week. I admire their dedication. I have to admit though why people doing an endurance race would want red bull or coke.

The volunteer fuel was pizza. Unfortunately, my table was next to the truck so I ate more than I should have done.

That’s about it this week. I am linking with Skywatch Friday.

Skywatch Friday – Dronephotography Sunsets

For a while we had weeks and weeks of either clear blue skies or heavy overcast with rain, neither one of which lends themselves to using a drone to take photos. Lately though we have had some interesting skies so I have been launching it a little bit to see what I could find. I did all of flying over my backyard.

Looking southwest over the local elementary school. Some pink in the skies.

On another day, looking straight west

Another day looking west. That tall building on this and the previous photo used to be Oral Roberts University’s hospital and medical school.

Looking northwest from the backyard.

An overcast day, I launched the drone anyway and got this shot. The clouds were too heavy for color in the sky so I just got some brighter sky further up.

More color in the northwestern sky.

Another view of the northwest sky.

I have a lot of fun flying my drone although I don’t develop much flying skill just going up and down from my back yard.

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday. Come check them out.

Skywatch Friday – The Simple Pleasures are the Best

A weekday baseball game

Keeping score

A bike ride on the riverparks trails

A hike through the woods along a lake

The full flower moon on a clear night

My backyard from 50 meters up

The drama of a sunset

The sight of a storm missing us.

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday

Skywatch Friday – Springtime in Oklahoma

Spring is really getting going now. The leaves are almost electric green. I take photos and when I look at them afterwards they look almost unnatural.

Sometimes the skies are incredibly blue.

The air is light. The temperature may so 39F outside when I wake up but it doesn’t feel near that cold.

It’s a great time to be in Oklahoma.

I took a walk with a young friend and former coworker. One of the legions of people I know leaving the hydrocarbon industry for renewables like wind and solar power. Amazing the things he told me, the innovations that are occurring right now. He’s telling me about the hydrogen economy and the role ammonia could play. I am falling behind. I have to do my homework.

You hear the phrase, there is nothing new under the sun. I have never believed it. There is plenty new under the sun and the moon.

In celebration of Spring in Oklahoma, here is “Oh What a Beautiful Morning.”

And you know, if you play one Oklahoma song you have to play the ultimate Oklahoma song. In this state everyone knows the songs and the correct arm and hand motions for “lazy hawks circling in the sky.”

Nobody else has as great a state song as Oklahoma does.

That’s enough for now. I’m linking with Skywatch Friday and also with Music Move Me.

Skywatch Friday – This and That

I dropped my son off at a church function a few weeks ago and I noticed that the lowering sun, the dark clouds, and the rain had the making of a decent image so I captured it on my cell phone.

We took a whirlwind trip out to western Oklahoma earlier this month. I captured this sunrise while walking the dog at the motel early in the morning. I love the western Oklahoma skies.

Nearby Broken Arrow, Oklahoma at its Veterans Park has a memorial to veterans who took their own lives when they got out of the service. Their are about a dozen silhouettes of actual people who are now gone. They call it the “War at Home Memorial.” It’s one of the most moving things I’ve ever seen.

Captured this image of the sky over the neighborhood elementary school on a dog walk.

This is an image from Tulsa’s Woodward Park earlier this month while it was still warm.

And a shot over my back fence to a sunrise last week.

That’s it for this week. I’m linking with Skywatch Friday!

Prescribed Burning and Masticating on Turkey Mountain

About a week ago the RiverParks folks here in Tulsa announced that conditions were finally right and resources available to proceed with a long planned controlled burn on Turkey Mountain Urban Wilderness Park. They closed the park and their partners, the Oklahoma Forest Service executed the prescribed burn. They asked everybody to stay I did. I did cuz I am a rule follower, most of the time, but I went for a bike ride on the adjoining bike trails and took a few photos. And you could see a fire was going and the smoke was dispersing and I could just barely smell the smoke.

They reopened the mountain the next day and of course I had to go check it out and it was interesting. As advertised it was apparently a “cool fire” that just went along the ground burning dead grass, leaves, and underbrush.

I think that the area was only about 12 acres or so. None of the standing trees were damaged from what I can see and they were able to keep the fire contained tightly. They have to have the right combination of temperature, humidity, winds, and other factors to minimize the risk of the fire getting away from them especially in an urban area.

There was a lot of smoldering going on but the RiverParks people said that they were not worried about it as long as it was in the original burned area. The place smelled like Boy Scout campout.

The burns are done to clear out the understory and get rid of invasive species. It reduces the risk of unwanted forest fires by getting rid of “ladder species” vegetation that a wildfire can crawl to get the tree canopy. It’ll open the forest and provide better grazing for deer and opportunities for native trees like oaks to thrive. It’s all part of the Turkey Mountain Master Plan.

So I have heard of prescribed burns before but Turkey Mountain has another tool they are using. It is called “Mastication.” This is where they used machinery called brush shredders to mulch the underbrush and invasive species. I had never heard of this term before but they masticated a small area of Turkey Mountain a few weeks ago. I visited it right afterward when they reopened the area after the work was done. It really opened up the forest. I love the effect.

And with the reopening you could see how the old trails were not well designed and were just kind of drainage ditches. I think they are going to be working on new, more sustainable trails in the area soon.

I had never seen brush cutters in action before but I found this video. It’s kind of a fearsome process to watch but it sure yields great results.

The RiverParks people say that the effect on wildlife is minimal. Both controlled burns and mastication are slow enough that the animals can evade the area. Long term it will provide better habitat for them.

I think they are going to be doing more of these projects as time goes by. Yes, I’m losing some of the fun jungly areas of Turkey Mountain but it will be replaced by a more natural, wildlife friendly vegetation and trees.

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday.

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