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. . . Ticker for October 25, 2012 . . .
MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... October 25, 2012 October 25, 2012 October 25, 2012 October 25, 2012 Another dry front, drought monitor remains unchanged Well, it's raining here in Norman as I type this and ... no, wait. It stopped. Oh well. Here we go with yet another mostly dry frontal passage. Temperatures are plummeting as the front passes, with 3-hour temperature drops of up to 30 degrees. http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20121025/current-tair.png http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20121025/current-3hour-tdrop.png Winds are gusting to over 40 mph. Combine that with the dropping temps and you get wind chills in the 30s (20s in the Panhandle). http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20121025/current.gust1hr.gif http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20121025/wind-chills.png We will now begin a downward spiral of our morning low temperatures to below freezing by Saturday morning over a large part of the state. Those low temperatures are expected to hang around each morning through the weekend. http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20121025/friday-morning.png http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20121025/sat-morning.png http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20121025/sun-morning.png All of this makes little difference in the drought, although the cooler temps will help slow evaporation from the topsoils and reservoirs. We didn't ask for any changes this week, so the U.S. Drought Monitor picture remained the same ... ugly. http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20121025/ok_dm.png Over 27% of the state remains in exceptional drought, dominated by those hard- hit areas in northern Oklahoma. Virtually the entire state remains in severe- exceptional drought according to the Drought Monitor. A very similar picture to last year at this time, although probably a tad better this year. http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20121025/oct25-2011-DM.png This is right around the time last year that our drought relief started full blast, in defiance of a double-dip La Nina, with the state's 12th wettest November-December period on record. http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20121025/nov-dec-2011-tots.png http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20121025/nov-dec-2011-pct.png Unfortunately, that type of relief is not showing up on the horizon just yet. In fact, the mid-range outlooks from the Climate Prediction Center still have our area under the dreaded brown color, meaning increased odds of below normal precipitation. And below-normal precipitation as we start getting into November and beyond is not good. These take us out through the first week of November. http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20121025/610prcp.new.gif http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20121025/814prcp.new.gif I'm not a huge fan of these graphics, but they are good just as a reminder of how far we have to go to get back to some semblance of normal. It's nearly impossible just to put a number up to get us back, since drought is much more complicated than that, but you can see we need a good 6-12 inches in a hurry. http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20121025/precip-needed.gif Looking at a time series of the Drought Monitor levels for Oklahoma from the DM's inception in 2000 through the current date, you can see just how dominant this 2-year drought cycle is. The only period that comes close is our mid-2005 through 2006 drought. http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20121025/DM-statistics-2000_2012.png This current drought cycle continues to build its rep as one of the worst of the last 50 years in Oklahoma. Like every other drought in Oklahoma history, this too shall pass. Gary McManus Associate State Climatologist Oklahoma Climatological Survey (405) 325-2253 ================================================== 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 ===================================================