MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... January 24, 2013 January 24, 2013 January 24, 2013 January 24, 2013
It's water, ain't it?
The U.S. Drought Monitor map released this morning contained one small change, and as has been par for the course the last 10 months, it was for the worse. The only changes we recommended were to increase the Exceptional (D4) drought area in northeastern Oklahoma a little bit farther to the east. So the amount of D4 went up by about one percent. Everything else remained the same.
http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20130124/ok_dm.png
That change was based on the lack of rainfall over the last 60 days up in that area, where less than an inch has fallen since Thanksgiving.
http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20130124/last60daystot.png http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20130124/last60dayspct.png
Unfortunately, our big storm with all the possible gullywashers has turned into something of a dud. However, I say when given a dud, turn it into Milk Duds (a vastly underrated player in the field of boxed candy). So let's look at those amounts now being forecast for a tenth to a half-inch and just say it's better than nothing!
http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20130124/7day-rain-forecast.gif
And it looks like this will come in a series of smaller events, but after that goes by, another dry pattern will set in. At least that's what it looks like now, so we need to get all we can over the next 7 days. The outlooks from CPC for that first week of February show increased odds of dry weather.
http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20130124/jan31-feb6-precip-outlook.gif
Even through the periods of gray skies and intermittent moisture, fire danger will still be elevated, as shown in this graphic from our friends at the Norman NWS. Notice how the fire danger remains in the "high to very high" category even when it says "chance of rain" at the bottom. During the cool season, the day-to-day and even hour-to-hour weather conditions are extremely important. Yes, you can have wildfires soon after rainfall when everything is dormant.
http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20130124/nws-norman-firedanger.jpg
So let's enjoy this bit of moisture, and turn this dud into corn syrup; sugar; vegetable oil (cocoa butter, palm, shea, sunflower and/or safflower oil); nonfat milk; dextrose; chocolate; contains 2% or less of: brown sugar; whey (milk); mono and diglycerides; sodium bicarbonate; milk fat; salt; resinous glaze; soy lecithin; tapioca dextrin; vanillin, artificial flavor!
Mmmmmmmmm, soy lecithinnnnnnn...
Gary McManus Associate State Climatologist Oklahoma Climatological Survey (405) 325-2253 gmcmanus@mesonet.org
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