MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... July 27, 2023 July 27, 2023 July 27, 2023 July 27, 2023
How green is your Panhandle?
https://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20230727/RG-2022.vs.2023.png
Now when's the last time far NW OK and the Panhandle has been that green?
1986, maybe?
Heck if I know, but I know it hasn't been this green for awhile after dealing with almost continuous drought out that way for the last decade-plus. Looking at a time series of drought in the Panhandle Climate Division (CD1 for those asking... and for those not asking because you involuntarily finished reading this), time spent in drought for that region far outpaces times not in drought. In fact, the time spent in serious drought (is there any other kind?) is evident with those darker reds going back to 2010 or so, which encompasses the horrific 2010-15 drought.
https://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20230727/panhandle-drought.png
At any rate, I don't mean to just focus on the Panhandle. But I really do since it's the greatest place in the universe...but I digress. The rest of the state is mostly doing great as well, such a pleasant change from recent memory of flash droughts, unbearable temperatures, foot fungus...wait, that slipped in there by accident. NO, not me! Some other State Climatologist. Texas! Yeah, he has foot fungus. Remind me to erase this later.
But looking at those two maps, we can also see that far SW OK hasn't really enjoyed as much of that greening as the rest of the state. And that's one of the areas that remains entrenched, along with north central OK, in pretty serious drought conditions.
https://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20230727/20230725_ok_trd.png
Hey, if you think being entrenched is bad, wait until you're ensconced. And we ALL know just how painful that can be.
We've built this greenness (we've built this greenness on rock and roll...worst Starship song EVER) on the backs of the near-historic rainfall over parts of the state through the past few months. Check out the 60-day rainfall showing that the Panhandle and west central climate divisions have had their wettest such periods in at least the last 100 years!
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/pct60day_rain.current.png
https://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20230727/60day-stats.png
In fact, part 2, take a look at those 60-day totals vs. their 1991-2020 normal 60-day and ANNUAL average totals.
https://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20230727/nor60day_rain.current.png
https://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20230727/avg_precip.1991-2020.png
Wow! So some of those sites have seen nearly a year's worth of precip in the last 2 months. Speaking of rainfall, heck it's raining right now for crying out loud! Well, sorta. Not much is reaching the ground, at least.
https://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20230727/current-radar.png
https://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20230727/today.rainrfc.png
But here's the deal...and I don't mean to be alarming here (but I had to look in the mirror this morning so why should I be the only one frightened??), but we are sorta in prime flash drought territory, especially south of I-40. The rains have shut off pretty abruptly and we are now seeing that stretch without at least a quarter-inch of rain approaching 3 weeks in some areas. The sun is out and relentless, and the heat--even for summer in OK--is well above normal and blistering our vegetation.
https://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20230727/mesonet.rainfall.quarterinch.png
https://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20230727/14day-rainfall.png
And the heat and lack of rain is expected to stretch at least another 7-10 days.
https://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20230727/7day-rain-forecast.gif
https://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20230727/nws-norman-7day-planner.png
So another week to 10 days of loss of soil moisture, stress on plants (and us animals), and possible flash drought.
https://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20230727/7day-soil.moisture-change.png
Now we're still seeing some relief possible maybe at the end of next week? That's approaching fantasy-cast territory, so I hesitate to sound too confident of that. Until then...hot, dry, and windy weather will continue.
Gary McManus State Climatologist Oklahoma Mesonet Oklahoma Climatological Survey gmcmanus@Mesonet.org
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