Ticker for June 9, 2009

                
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June 9, 2009       June 9, 2009       June 9, 2009       June 9, 2009


Remember When It Used To Rain?

If you're like me, well...I feel sorry for you. But if you are apt to make
bad predictions, we are kindred spirits. Making bad predictions is sort of a
bad trait for a meteorologist, which is why I became a climatologist despite my
two meteorology degrees. No, I can't tell you if it's going to rain tomorrow,
but I can tell you if it rained yesterday.

Yes, this job is as easy as it looks.

Back to bad predictions...I've made some doozies in my day:

John Blake is going to be a heckuva head ball coach
Gary McManus, President of the United States
Betamax over VHS (if you're too young to know what I'm talking about, get a
haircut and a job!)
The Cubs win the World Series!!
This spring (2009) is going to be a washout

To be fair, I deserve partial credit on that last one. Parts of spring were
indeed a washout. It rained like crazy almost everyday there for awhile. But
then it stopped. And it didn't start again. In fact, Oklahoma's rainy season
this year was about 22 days long. The precipitation stats from the Oklahoma
Mesonet tell the whole story.

January 1-April 24

Drought already had a toehold in Oklahoma before the year began, but dryness
through this period allowed it to creep across the state, as seen on the U.S.
Drought Monitor images from January 6  vs. April 21:




It did rain during that period, but southern and western Oklahoma really took
it on the chin:





April 25-May 16

This 22-day period was a drought-killer for much of the state, as can be seen
from the Drought Monitor images.




South central Oklahoma was pounded by heavy rain at the end of April that
bolstered their totals. However, the northwest was left teetering on the edge
of drought's reach, not receiving the generous moisture of the south and east.
The Panhandle was almost left out completely, leaving that area on average more
than an inch below normal while other areas of the state had their wettest
April 25-May 16 periods on record. Now keep in mind that April 25-May 16 is a
fairly arbitrary and short period to rank, but we also need to realize that
period is smack-dab in the middle of Oklahoma's rainy season (I hope I'm not
losing you with all these technical terms here, like "smack-dab"). In other
words, just about any record you break for precipitation during the rainy season
tends to be significant.





May 17-June 9

Too put it simply, Mother Nature turned off our water (I swear, the check is
in the mail!). No such luck though, she doesn't have a grace period, and
besides, I don't know where to stick that weird little metal thingy to turn the
water back on. Lack of rain has allowed drought to once again spread, leaving
many areas balanced on the edge of a really dry summer. Again, Drought Monitor
images from before and after:




North central Oklahoma and the Panhandle received very little rainfall, leaving
the soils of that area ripe-picking for the sun's rays and coming summer heat.





All is not lost, however. We can always hope for a cool, rainy summer (2007
anyone?). Minus the flooding, of course. And the lack of storms, where most of
our warm-season rains come from, also curtailed what was shaping up to be a
pretty violent and destructive severe weather season. Only the Mays of 2005 (0)
and May 1988 (2) had fewer tornadoes than the 2009 total of 4.

An El Nino event has been forecast to develop this summer by the Climate
Prediction Center. That won't help much during the warm months, unfortunately.
The impacts signal for that phenomenon is mixed for Oklahoma outside of the
winter time frame. If it should develop and strengthen, however, it could steer
us towards a wetter (yay!) and cooler (boo!) winter. Way too early to tell on
that though. And on my Presidential run.

But the Cubs??? Come on.

Gary McManus
Associate State Climatologist
Oklahoma Climatological Survey