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. . . Ticker for July 11, 2022 . . .
MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... July 11, 2022 July 11, 2022 July 11, 2022 July 11, 2022 Maniac https://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20220711/mesonet.rainfall.quarterinch.png Mother Nature...she's a maniac, maaaaaaniac on the floor, and she's heat waving like she's never heat waved before. Well, at least since the brutal summers of 2011 and 2012 (although 2011 sneers at 2012 behind closed doors). We've had hot weather after that, of course...there was a July day in 2018 that saw the statewide average high temperature reach 107 degrees on the Mesonet (this year's tops is 102 back on July 7), but this type of unending sunshine and consistent heat is really a throwback to a decade ago. https://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20220711/tmax_ge100.20110710.png https://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20220711/tmax_ge100.20120710.png https://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20220711/tmax.ge100.png We can count the current iteration of this longer-term heat wave up to 13 days if we add on today. https://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20220711/tmax.ge90.png At least that's the length of time since we've seen a decent cooldown in the state, but in reality the heat goes back further than that. In fact (why would I lie???), 26 of the last 30 days have been above the long-term average across the state. https://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20220711/last30days-max.temps.png So it's odd when I keep seeing folks remark that "this is a normal summer in Oklahoma." Well, sure, since it's hot. That's typically how you would describe an Oklahoma summer. But this heat is somewhat uncommon since those summers of a decade ago when the summers of 2010-12 represented a 3-year string that we hadn't seen since maybe the 1950s. And it is NOT just coincidental that the drought through 2010-12 was arguably the worst we had seen since the 1950s. https://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20220711/statewide-avg-temps-1895-2021.png Ah yes, drought. So the sudden ending of moisture across much of the state since early June along with those brutal temps and all that sunshine has led to a rapid drying out across Oklahoma. After so much progress against the drought, we are starting to backslide into increasing drought conditions once again. Oklahoma's soil moisture, which I had now-infamously pegged as a reason we would NOT have a hot summer this year, has all but disappeared in the face of the heat wave (and lack of further rainfall). https://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20220711/16-inch-pct-avail-water.png While the dry weather across parts of the state extends back 60-90 days in some parts of the state, the "flashy" part of this dry spell goes back to the 30-day period. That period is marked now as the driest on record across the state over at least the last 100 years. https://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20220711/last30days-rain-stats.png https://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20220711/30day-rain-totals.png https://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20220711/del30day_rain.current.png https://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20220711/pct30day_rain.current.png And there's not really much hope for bigtime rains coming up over at least through the next 7 days, and possibly as we look all the way out to early August as the heat and dry weather look further entrenched. https://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20220711/7day-rain-forecast.gif https://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20220711/july18-24-temp-outlook.png https://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20220711/july18-24-precip-outlook.png https://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20220711/july23-aug5-temp-outlook.png https://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20220711/july23-aug5-precip-outlook.png We will have some momentary relief, relatively speaking, coming up on Wednesday and Thursday, as another cold front approaches. However, keep in mind while the northern half of the state seems somewhat cooler temperatures, the southern half of the state still bakes under the edge of that heat dome that has become entrenched over the state. And then it's right back to the frying pan for all of the state for another extended period. And today might just rival July 7 for the hottest day of the year thus far. https://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20220711/todays-forecast-highs.png https://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20220711/tomorrows-forecast-highs.png https://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20220711/nws-norman-7day-temps.png Hopefully we're surprised by some more hefty rains than we're seeing in the forecast totals. The saving grace of the coming week is that the humidity should be a bit less than what we've seen with some of those heat index values heading up above 110 degrees. It's a dry heat...it's all we got! Gary McManus State Climatologist Oklahoma Mesonet Oklahoma Climatological Survey gmcmanus@mesonet.org ================================================== The OCS/Mesonet Ticker https://ticker.mesonet.org/ To subscribe or unsubscribe from the Ticker or for questions about the Ticker or its content Phone or Email the Ticker Manager at OCS Phone: 405-325-2253 Email: ticker@mesonet.org --------------------------------------------------- -C- Copyright 2024 Oklahoma Climatological Survey ===================================================