MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... June 20, 2024 June 20, 2024 June 20, 2024 June 20, 2024
How soon we forget
https://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20240620/june25-29-temp-outlook.png
First off, that about covers the rain in the Panhandle for awhile, no? If you didn't read yesterday's Ticker, you're lucky, but if you wanted to see us detail yesterday's 500-to-1000 year rainfall, check it out here:
https://ticker.mesonet.org/select.php?mo=06&da=20&yr=2024
And here's how the rainfall ended up after it was all said and done.
https://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20240620/june19-2024-rain.png
Quite a few folks have asked us when was the last time the Panhandle was this wet. Well, does "Noah" ring a bell? NO NO, not that long ago...it was all the way back to...LAST SUMMER!
How soon we forget.
https://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20230727/60day-rain-totals.png
https://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20230727/del60day_rain.current.png
https://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20230727/60day-stats.png
Right, last June and July combined were the wettest on record for the Panhandle climate division, which encompasses the 3 Panhandle counties as well as Harper and Ellis counties. The May-July period was alos the wettest on record. You may be wondering what "alos" means...I am also. Yeah, too lazy to backspace. But you can probably also remember the huge wildfires out in the Texas and Oklahoma Panhadles, as well as far western OK, late this winter? That was in large part due to the big rains of last summer in the area causing lots of overgrowth in those parts, which left a lot of fuel for those wildfires.
Here's another crazy stat from yesterday, from our Oklahoma Associate State Climatologist, Dr. Mark Shafer. Goodwell's rainfall total of 7.67 inches was more than the ANNUAL total of 6.48 inches from 2022, which is also the lowest annual total ANYWHERE in Oklahoma on record. https://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20230102/2022-rain.png
Secondly (remember way back at the first, when we said "Firstly?"), there's not much chance of more rainfall in the next week or two here in the state as we're going into a classic summertime pattern under the DEATH RIDGE HEAT DOME OF DEATH! A Ring of Fire, if you will. Yeah, we said "death" twice.
https://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20240620/ring-of-fire.png
Depending on where that heat dome wanders too, we'll see chances of showers along the periphery. From somebody who pretty much lives on the periphery of societal norms...it's not a good place to be. Yep, here comes the heat!
https://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20240620/nws-norman-7day-temps.png
It'll be sorta hot today, but the real heat comes this weekend into early next week (and beyond).
https://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20240620/saturday-highs.png
https://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20240620/sunday-highs.png
https://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20240620/monday-highs.png
That heat is important because we're also seeing it start to dry out across all BUT far NW OK, following yesterday's rain.
https://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20240620/30day-rain-totals.png
https://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20240620/del30day_rain.current.png
https://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20240620/pct30day_rain.current.png
So new drought did develop to the south and east of that big rain in NW OK. Now the new Drought map is out, but keep in mind any rain seen after 7 a.m. on Tuesday morning goes to next week's map, so no changes in NW OK until next Thursday's map. Obviously, drought is greatly reduced or obliterated in that area. Outside of that region, flash drought is imminent.
https://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20240620/20240618_ok_trd.png
https://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20240620/current_OK_chng_1W.png
Today's CPC outlooks for July and July-September also came out today, and it would appear summer is gonna be a scorcher, and possibly dry, when averaged out over those longer periods.
https://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20240620/cpc-outlooks.png
The Drought Outlook for the July-September period shows drought persistence and development over much of NW OK through the period, but remember it suffers from the same problem as this week's Drought Monitor, having been produced right on the heels of that big rain in that area. However, keep in mind that drought could still come back pretty quickly up there. This type of extreme rain event up in the droughty area of the Panhandle doesn't necessarily relieve that longer- term dryness. That rain no doubt helped, but with the ground baked hard, much of it ran off pretty quickly, no doubt.
https://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20240620/season_drought.png
Lastly...I never mentioned the heat index. Yeah, it's coming!
Gary McManus State Climatologist Oklahoma Mesonet Oklahoma Climatological Survey gmcmanus@ou.edu
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