Ticker for November 13, 2003

                
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November 13, 2003  November 13, 2003  November 13, 2003  November 13, 2003



New Drought / Rainfall Monitoring Pages Online

OCS has implemented the next generation of its drought monitoring tools
that utilize real-time data from the Oklahoma Mesonet. In addition to
"traditional" rainfall statistics, such as departure from normal and
percentage of normal, OCS also provides a number of specific drought
indices, fire danger assessments and historical context.

Some new features:

Multiple Timescales: Different interests respond to drought on different
timescales.  For example, a wheat farmer may be senstive to events
that develop in one or two months, while a reservoir operator may care
more about the long-term patterns. OCS updates information for ten
different "seasons" of interest.

Driest Since / Wettest Since: Addresses the question "when was the last
time it was this wet/dry?"

Driest / Wettest on Record: Addresses the question "how bad can it get
this time of year?"

Analog seasons: Addresses the question "what period in our history is
this situation most like?"

Online help: Each category is now equipped with a pop-up box to help
reader interpret the information.

Fractional Water Index: OCS's own index of soil moisture observations
at 25 cm below the surface of the earth.

Standardized Precipitation Index: gives a measure of the "unusualness"
of the current period.

The tables and graphics are updated every morning to give an automated
daily "e-briefing" of emerging situations on multiple timescales.

You can access the drought monitoring resources directly at
http://climate.mesonet.org/drought/

or you can access them through the OCS climate pages:
http://climate.mesonet.org/


New Drought Pages Paint Dry Picture

Despite today's raw, damp day, conditions across much of the state have
been quite dry, both in the short term and the long term.  For example,
comparing the last 30 days, to all of the Oct 14-Nov 12 periods since
1921, the current episode stands out as:

Panhandle Climate Division (CD): Driest
North Central CD: 2nd Driest
Northeast CD: 6th Driest
West Central CD: 7th Driest
Central CD: 4th Driest

On a longer scale, here's how the current year-to-date rainfall stacks
up to all of the Jan 1-Nov 12 perids since 1921:

Southeast CD: 7th Driest
South Central CD: 8th Driest
Southwest CD: 10th Driest
East Central CD: 12th Driest
West Central: 10th Driest