Mesonet Ticker for February 6, 2025

                
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February 6, 2025 February 6, 2025 February 6, 2025 February 6, 2025


Ye olde drought update




I held off as long as I could. Weeks and weeks I waited, while conditions
continued to worsen.

No, not bath night! The U.S. Drought Monitor. We've held steady thanks to that
incredible November rainfall (also, the last time I had a bath, unintentionally...
that'll teach me to not carry my umbrella). Aided by the recent cool weather,
things held a bit more steady, but with the record warmth of earlier this week,
and the continued dry spell, it was time to pull the trigger. That's why you see
a 42% increase in "color" on the DM, with almost all of that increase being in
the D0 category, or "abnormally dry conditions."

Here's the kicker there...D0 is NOT drought, it signifies areas either going into
or coming out of drought. In this case, quite obviously, the former. Drought
itself, the D1-D4 intensities, only increased by 2.5%, and all of that was D1
(moderate) drought, and that was up in NE OK and a bit down in SC OK.

The rainfall stats behind the increases are pretty bad, but we've lucked out the
deficits aren't too profound, given that this dry spell has occurred during
the driest part of the year. Nevertheless, they continue to worsen. We're getting
close to 80 days with a substantial part of the state going without significant
moisture, so let's check those stats since Dec. 1, the start of climatological
winter.













Well that's a whole lotta ugly, and trust me...I know ugly.

I HEARD THAT!

Okay, let's take a look ahead. Over the next 7 days, things look pretty good
(if I don't look in a mirror...REALLY! You keep coming with the insults, and...
oh wait, I'm doing that) IF you are in the SE third of the state or so.



The NW half of the state, and then again down into the SW quarter, it's helpful
but simply not enough. IF this forecast bears fruit. After that, there's sorta
kinda a hint of some wet weather for the NW half, but it's pretty shaky.



Other than that, we have yet another stupid (yeah, I sez STUPID!) cold front
moving through the state with gusty northerly winds, tracking on the Mesonet
pretty clearly in the winds and wind chills.





Now we do warm up for the next few days, as we've mentioned all week, but we
plummet again next week with another arctic blast. Personally, I favor Sonic
Blasts, Oreo especially, but I'll take Reese's in a pinch, but that's neither
here nor there. It's at Sonic.





Maybe some ice and snow early next week as well, but that's also neither here
nor there, unless here and there are mainly in northern Oklahoma. In other
words, best chances are across the northern half or so of the state.

I'd keep abreast of the weather as you go through the weekend to make any
preparations for next week just in case. Better to be abreast than askew!

Gary McManus
State Climatologist
Oklahoma Mesonet
Oklahoma Climatological Survey
gmcmanus@ou.edu

February 10 in Mesonet History

Record Value Station Year
Maximum Temperature 94°F BEAV 2017
Minimum Temperature -31°F NOWA 2011
Maximum Rainfall 2.81″ IDAB 1998

Mesonet records begin in 1994.

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