Ticker for September 6, 2011

                
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September 6, 2011  September 6, 2011  September 6, 2011  September 6, 2011


Where's my coat?

I'll be darned if Canada didn't go and leave the refrigerator door open over
the weekend. Actually the pattern we're in sees us to the east of Lee (now a
post-tropical cyclone) and covered by surface high pressure. That means lots
of dry and cool continental air is flooding the Plains states.

Check out today's low temperatures from the Oklahoma Mesonet.



It dipped down to the lower-to-mid 40s over a good portion of the state, but
the NWS' COOP site at Ft. Supply reached a terribly cold 37 degrees. Now not
only does that beat Ft. Supply's record for the day of 45 degrees, it's
actually the coldest temperature ever recorded in the state for any September
6th dating back to the late 1880s.



The previous record low for the state on September 6 was 39 degrees at Zoe
back in 1974. That's also the lowest temperature recorded in the state since
Kenton depped down to 37 degrees on May 26.

Now I hate to throw a dry blanket on all of our cooler weather, but in my view
it's actually the continuation of an on-going $2 billion disaster (as estimated
by state agricultural officials). And of course that just accounts for
agriculture. The cool weather would have been much more welcome due to lots of
gray skies and rain. Our current weather pattern is very bad news for
agriculture.

As a not-so-gentle reminder, the statewide rainfall total of 22.51 inches of
rainfall from September 1, 2010 - August 31, 2011, is the 4th driest on record
at more than 14 inches below normal dating back to 1895. For the Panhandle,
north central, west central and southwestern Oklahoma, that same period is
easily the driest on record for those areas. Southwestern Oklahoma alone is
16 inches below normal with very little relief in sight.





Something's gotta give, but as of now, the state's agricultural producers have
given enough. We need rain, not crisp blue skies and low humidity. This weather
isn't beautiful. It's downright ugly.

Gary "the Curmudgeon" McManus
Associate State Climatologist
Oklahoma Climatological Survey
(405) 325-2253
gmcmanus@mesonet.org