MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... April 7, 2009 April 7, 2009 April 7, 2009 April 7, 2009
Oklahoma Wheat Takes A Beating...Again
Wheat is a lot like me; no, not short and balding...I heard that! If the weather is warm during February and March, the last thing I want is any more cold weather. I think it's spring! Well, wheat is the same way. Give it warm weather in late-winter and the last thing the plants need is a dose of really cold weather. When it is abnormally warm, the plants rev up their maturation schedule and become more vulnerable to freeze events. Unfortunately, that scenario has played out once already during the BLIZZARD OF 2009!!! (sorry, it's sweeps week here at the Ticker) and the cold weather that accompanied that event. The moisture was much needed, but the cold was not. The folks at the Plant and Soil Sciences Extension at OSU noted wheat damage from the frigid weather in their last newsletter:
"The cold snap resulted in various levels of injury from cosmetic damage to total sterility."
Now it's been a couple of decades since I spent my summers sitting in a wheat truck breathing chaff for 12 hours a day, but "total sterility" can't be good. And fresh off the heels of that disaster, Oklahoma farmers have now been hit by a second blast of sub-freezing temperatures.
The temperature data from February-March set the stage for the wheat damage:
Oklahoma Mesonet February-March Temperature Comparison Climate Division Avg Temp(F) Dep from Norm(F) Rank since 1895 Panhandle 44.6 2.1 24th Warmest North Central 47.1 3.1 17th Warmest Northeast 48.0 2.8 17th Warmest West Central 48.9 3.9 10th Warmest Central 50.4 4.0 11th Warmest East Central 49.9 2.5 17th Warmest Southwest 51.6 4.1 6th Warmest South Central 52.8 3.7 9th Warmest Southeast 51.1 2.2 21st Warmest Statewide 49.3 3.2 13th Warmest During the current event, low temperatures dipped below freezing across the entire state the last two nights (April 5-7), in some places for 20 hours or more, as shown here on a freeze duration map from the Oklahoma Mesonet:
http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20090407/below32_apr5-7.gif
This next statement is more common sense than anything, but obviously the colder and longer the freezing temps occur, the worse the damage will be. Here are two more freeze duration maps for the last two days, this time with the threshold set at 28 and 24 degrees:
http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20090407/below28_apr5-7.gif http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20090407/below24_apr5-7.gif
Apparently it takes a few days for the freeze damage to show up on the wheat itself, so watch for reports on that from our partners at OSU. And of course it's not just wheat that can be damaged...any vulnerable crops, including those of an ornamental variety in urban settings, are at risk during these types of events.
Gary McManus Assistant State Climatologist
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