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June 30, 2011 June 30, 2011 June 30, 2011 June 30, 2011
Snapshot of drought
If this shot from space doesn't exemplify what a strong La Nina can do, I'm not
sure what will. This is the latest Veg-DRI image released today.
http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20110629/Veg-DRI.png
The oranges, reds and browns indicate the worst drought intensities. The gray
areas are "out of season" so in Oklahoma, that's due to drought and the bare
fields following the recent wheat harvest. You can read more about Veg-DRI
here: http://drought.unl.edu/vegdri/VegDRI_Main.htm
That picture is the classic footprint of a La Nina's impact on precipitation
in the U.S. Note the extreme drought conditions in the Southern Plains vs. the
extremely moist areas in the Northern Plains and the Ohio Valley. That is a
result of the storm track being pushed to the north. And that is due to the
disruption of the large-scale motions of the atmosphere caused by La Nina.
The good news is that La Nina has faded away. The bad news is, as I've talked
about before, the impacts of La Nina can stick around for a bit while while the
La Nina is fading. In other words, those disruptions of the atmosphere tend to
have a bit of momentum, if you will. Hopefully those will fade completely soon.
The trouble is the "normal" pattern across the U.S., now that we've hit June,
is very much like La Nina's impacts. The jet stream moves to the north and we
get really dry. But we we're really dry already. We are in the middle of a
great big "uh oh" moment. The drought has gotten a taste of summer and it likes
it. They (the drought and the heat) will work together now to intensify the
drought (mmmmm, feeeedbackkk) until the rains return.
You listening, Arlene??
Gary McManus
Associate State Climatologist
Oklahoma Climatological Survey
gmcmanus@mesonet.org
(405) 325-2253
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