In case you missed it, almost the entire state of OK has either a High Wind Warning, High Wind Watch or Wind Advisory for tomorrow, Wednesday, 2-13-19. The timing of the warning, watch or advisory may vary slightly from one area to the next, so check your local NWS forecast to see what it says for your specific area.

In general, the OK panhandle's High Wind Warning is for sustained wind in the 40-50 mph range with gusts to 70 mph. It is in effect from 10 am to 10 pm tomorrow.

For western, central and most of northern OK (all covered by the Norman forecast office), the High Wind Warning is in effect from 10 am Wed to 1 am Thurs and calls for sustained winds of 30-50 mph with gusts to 60 mph.

For southern and southeastern OK, the Wind Advisory is in effect from 10 am Wed thru 1 am Thurs and specifies sustained winds of 25-30 with gusts to 50 mph.

For northern and northeastern areas with the High Wind Watch, it is in effect from 1 pm Wed thru 7 pm Wed and specifies that wind gusts may reach 60 mph. I wouldn't be surprised to see this High Wind Watch upgraded at some point to a High Wind Warning.

If you're in eastern or extreme southeastern OK and currently have no wind warning, watch or advisory, then....lucky you! Don't let your guard down as forecast changes occur often.

So, y'all, be sure to batten down the hatches, secure all small portable greenhouses and all greenhouse and hoophouse covers, plus any floating row covers currently in use. Secure loose objects that might blow around your garden (including small children and small pets, lol) and put any flats of plants or winter-sown containers in locations that will often them good shelter from the strong winds.

In case you're wondering what 50-70 mph winds will do to objects, we've seen trampolines go flying in winds only in the low 50s in our neighborhood, and have seen greenhouse coverings ripped off even very nicely framed hoophouses/high tunnels in some similar winds. Having said that, my greenhouse (which is a hoophouse) plastic has withstood winds of at least 63 mph in past wind events, and perhaps the aluminet shade cloth gets some credit for that as it lies on top of the clear 6 mm greenhouse plastic and is stapled to the wooden parts of the hoophouse frame with staples and baffles. I wouldn't have any flats of plants out in the wind tomorrow, and it also wouldn't be a good idea to have flats of flats outdoors unless they are in an area with serious shelter from the wind.

We've also seen power poles break in these sorts of winds and have seen trees crash down, both of which can cause power outages.

Winds like this also will bring down wind chimes and bird feeders, for example, so I'll take mine down either tonight or early tomorrow morning. The last time we had winds in the 50 mph range, they even blew down our large rain gauge, which is staked into the ground, but at least it didn't break. Of course, it did not accurately record rainfall either since it was blowing around the yard.

I believe the worst of the wind will come along with the dryline that follows tonight's/tomorrow's rain storms. I'm hoping that once the dryline finally blows through, the winds will fall. There is some evidence of that with the panhandle's warning and NE/E OK's watch ending at 7 pm while many of the rest of us will have a warning or advisory until 1 a.m.

Hmmm. Between the wind and the rain, tomorrow looks like a great day to stay indoors. I'll let our poultry out into their fenced run, but won't let them free-range. The cats will stay in, and the dogs will only go out for the bare minimum of time needed to do their doggie business.

I dread the rain more than the wind, but the wind probably is more of a safety hazard than the rain....unless someone gets enough rain to cause flooding.

The good news is that after all this blows through, high pressure moves in so we should have some dry, sunny days (albeit, accompanied by some very cold nights) for a while.

If any part of the forecast has changed, I don't want to know it, because lately when the forecast changes, it changes for the worse each time and never changes for the better.

Dawn