Ticker for April 7, 2009

                
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April 7, 2009      April 7, 2009      April 7, 2009      April 7, 2009


Oklahoma Wheat Takes A Beating...Again

Wheat is a lot like me; no, not short and balding...I heard that! If the
weather is warm during February and March, the last thing I want is any more
cold weather. I think it's spring! Well, wheat is the same way. Give it warm
weather in late-winter and the last thing the plants need is a dose of really
cold weather. When it is abnormally warm, the plants rev up their maturation
schedule and become more vulnerable to freeze events. Unfortunately, that
scenario has played out once already during the BLIZZARD OF 2009!!! (sorry,
it's sweeps week here at the Ticker) and the cold weather that accompanied
that event. The moisture was much needed, but the cold was not. The folks at
the Plant and Soil Sciences Extension at OSU noted wheat damage from the
frigid weather in their last newsletter:

"The cold snap resulted in various levels of injury from cosmetic
damage to total sterility."

Now it's been a couple of decades since I spent my summers sitting in a wheat
truck breathing chaff for 12 hours a day, but "total sterility" can't be good.
And fresh off the heels of that disaster, Oklahoma farmers have now been hit
by a second blast of sub-freezing temperatures.

The temperature data from February-March set the stage for the wheat damage:

Oklahoma Mesonet February-March Temperature Comparison
Climate Division     Avg Temp(F)  Dep from Norm(F)	Rank since 1895
Panhandle	         44.6	         2.1	         24th Warmest
North Central	         47.1	         3.1	         17th Warmest
Northeast	         48.0	         2.8	         17th Warmest
West Central	         48.9	         3.9	         10th Warmest
Central	         50.4	         4.0	         11th Warmest
East Central	         49.9	         2.5	         17th Warmest
Southwest	         51.6	         4.1	          6th Warmest
South Central	         52.8	         3.7	          9th Warmest
Southeast	         51.1	         2.2	         21st Warmest
Statewide	         49.3	         3.2	         13th Warmest

During the current event, low temperatures dipped below freezing
across the entire state the last two nights (April 5-7), in some places for 20
hours or more, as shown here on a freeze duration map from the Oklahoma
Mesonet:



This next statement is more common sense than anything, but obviously the
colder and longer the freezing temps occur, the worse the damage will be. Here
are two more freeze duration maps for the last two days, this time with the
threshold set at 28 and 24 degrees:




Apparently it takes a few days for the freeze damage to show up on the wheat
itself, so watch for reports on that from our partners at OSU. And of course
it's not just wheat that can be damaged...any vulnerable crops, including those
of an ornamental variety in urban settings, are at risk during these types of
events.

Gary McManus
Assistant State Climatologist