Ticker for February 28, 2006

                
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February 28, 2006  February 28, 2006  February 28, 2006  February 28, 2006



Drought Update

The latest - and very dry - drought statistics are now available from
OCS's Climate Information Group. They are available here:

https://content.mesonet.org/ticker/archive/20060228/drought.20060228.pdf

Some highlights (lowlights):

The current season is the driest such season (ending Feb 27) on
record for each of Oklahoma's nine climate divisions, on at least
one time scale (30, 60, 90, 120, 180, 365 days)

It has now been 140+ days since a day saw more than a quarter-inch
of precip for much of southwest Oklahoma

For extreme southwest Oklahoma, it's been 140 days since a tenth-inch
fell on one calendar day.


Chilling Hours

The Mesonet's two-campus leadership makes us all smarter. One thing
that the Ticker Staff would have never known if not for the Mesonet's
ecumenical nature: crisp winter days and nights can make for more
productive orchards, even before we see blooms!

In fact, one measure the quality (and quantity) of a fruit tree's early
spring growth, and its subsequent fruitset, is the number of chilling
hours it experiences during its over-winter season. Inadequate chilling
may lead to smaller and fewer fruits! For fruit aficionados -- and you
know who you are -- here's the running total since the beginning of
"chill season":



And here's how the latest seven days have panned out, through yesterday:



Thanks to Al Sutherland, OSU's Mesonet Agricultural Coordinator, for
prompting this useful product!