Ticker for October 9, 2012

                
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October 9, 2012    October 9, 2012    October 9, 2012    October 9, 2012


Drought Update: The Little Buffalo Pond That Could(n't)

Before we get started, you say you want to go into farming? Most times, yes.

Sometimes ... ehhhh, not so much.

https://content.mesonet.org/ticker/archive/20121009/disaster_map_cropyr_2012.pdf

Speaking of disasters, many of you have followed along as we've tracked the
levels (or lack thereof) of the little farm pond just south of Buffalo. The pond,
which is spring-fed and had never gone dry since in the 30+ years I fished it,
has become something of a symbol of drought the last couple of years in northwest
Oklahoma. It's also my favorite place in the world, or used to be. I'm still
waiting for the rain that will make it that way again.

First, here are the pictures going forward in time from the pond's zenith back in
May 2009. It may not look like much to many of you, but to a High Plains native,
this is about as green and lovely as that country can get. Obviously times were
good back in May 2009.



Following that, the path to drought and its impact on farm ponds is tracked by
the declining levels of the pond.







The picture of from August 5 of this year should have sufficed, but there was
that one decent rain across the state that dropped our drought levels a bit.
The Buffalo area got rain from that one as well, but only 2.6 inches since that
last picture. That's not much over two months, and still well below normal.
The picture from last weekend, taken during Buffalo's Homecoming, should not
be much of a shock then.



That's some bad fishing right there! We look toward our next chance of rain
with a system coming in this weekend. It is starting to show up on the HPC
5-day rain forecasts, at least.



As usual, we're gonna need much more than what is showing there, but it's a
start. Now if we can just get it to move over a certain farm 8 miles south of
Buffalo...

Gary McManus
Associate State Climatologist
Oklahoma Climatological Survey
(405) 325-2253
gmcmanus@mesonet.org