Mesonet Ticker for February 5, 2026

                
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February 5, 2026   February 5, 2026   February 5, 2026   February 5, 2026


A tie for Valentine's Day




"Well that's not good."

That quote, said by the doctor that delivered me to my parents, can apply to
many things.

Choosing to eat at Taco Bell.
AFTER eating at Taco Bell.
When your teacher just shakes their head at you before giving your test back.
When you get your blood work done and it's just a picture of pizza.

But also when looking at the current rainfall stats for the CLIMATOLOGICAL (take
THAT, meteorologists!) winter thus far across Oklahoma. If you don't believe your
eyes above, then these won't make you feel any better.





The kicker here is that winter is dry anyway, but when you reach historic dry
levels, then you have problems. Well, you HAD problems but you're just making
them worse (see Taco Bell above) because you already had a significantly dry
fall. And that problem you're making worse is drought.



So despite the moisture from the rain and snow, which helped no doubt, we are
still seeing drought spread and intensify across the state. Here's how it
changed this week. As with eating snow, the yellow color is bad.



And remember it wasn't but 6 months ago we had NO drought in the state, so all
these colors on the map have shown up since the end of July.



The obvious question to ask is, when will we see more relief? Well, it's both
obvious and answered unknowingly. It ain't gonna be in the next week, at least
not showing up yet.



The outlook is warm, Warm, WARM. And maybe a bit of moisture.



There are a couple of things here. Number one, don't get TOO excited about seeing
those slightly increased odds of above normal precip. I mean, that's great and
all, but we're still in the driest part of the year, so being "above normal"
for a 5-day period in early February might not mean a bunch of gullywashers.

And B, seeing highs start to soar into the 70s, and maybe some 80s, for quite a
bit of the next 7-10 days (and beyond, see next graphic) will put more pressure
on the moisture we already have, and the need for it as well. A false spring
as we start to head into the second half of February, with the sun climbing
higher into the sky and more and more hours of sunlight each day, will start
waking some of that vegetation up, as well as evaporating soil moisture.



We'll have to see if any parts of this pattern change in the next week or so.
They always do in Oklahoma, but until then, the drought will continue to get
worse, faster if it stays too warm.

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

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