Ticker for September 7, 2011

                
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September 7, 2011  September 7, 2011  September 7, 2011  September 7, 2011


Nosferdirtu

Much as I feared would happen (I've been saying that a lot lately ... maybe I
need to listen to FDR), the lack of rainfall coupled with heat, sun, wind and
(now) low humidity has taken its toll on Oklahoma's soils.

Take a look at the 7-day change in 10-inch Fractional Water Index from the
Oklahoma Mesonet.



Our last bastion of soil moisture in eastern Oklahoma has been depleted and
now joins western Oklahoma in the land of stressed soils. Pay no attention to
the 0.0s over in western and southern Oklahoma. That just means there wasn't
any soil moisture to leech to begin with. Take a look at the current soil
moisture maps at 2-, 10- and 24-inch depths.





There are pockets here and there of soil moisture, but the picture is pretty
bleak for much of the state. Certainly not what we want to see as many of the
state's wheat farmers contemplate planting in the next month or two.

The first seven days of September have been a complete dud. Other than that bit
of moisture associated with the front on Saturday, most of the state has
had little to no rainfall.




I've been looking at various time periods in providing input to the Drought
Monitor map this week and it struck me I haven't looked at the mid-term
deficits much. The warm growing season starts on April 1. Here are the rainfall
stats for April 1-September 7 from the Oklahoma Mesonet. 2007 is looking pretty
good right now.

Clim. Div.	Total	     Dep. 	Pct.	Rank since 1921
Panhandle 	 4.83" 	   -10.35" 	32%	   1st driest
N. Central 	10.51" 	   -10.45" 	50%	   3rd driest
Northeast 	20.32" 	    -4.74" 	81%	  22nd driest
W. Central 	 6.81" 	   -12.41" 	35%	   1st driest
Central 	12.65" 	   -10.35" 	55%	   3rd driest
E. Central 	22.56" 	    -3.45" 	87%	  30th driest
Southwest 	 5.94" 	   -13.67" 	30%	   1st driest
S. Central 	 9.94" 	   -13.56" 	42%	   1st driest
Southeast 	20.92" 	    -6.32" 	77%	  13th driest
Statewide 	12.71" 	    -9.50" 	57%	   3rd driest

Clim. Div.	    Driest since 	    Wettest since
Panhandle 	         -- 	            2007 (15.34")
N. Central 	    1956 (10.24") 	    2007 (33.45")
Northeast 	    2005 (19.85") 	    2007 (36.23")
W. Central 	         -- 	            2007 (32.04")
Central 	    1956 (12.27") 	    2007 (43.49")
E. Central 	    2006 (20.54") 	    2007 (32.25")
Southwest 	         -- 	            2007 (31.43")
S. Central 	         -- 	            2007 (36.15")
Southeast 	    2005 (15.66") 	    2007 (31.78")
Statewide 	    1956 (12.21") 	    2007 (32.90")

Just another piece of the puzzle, part of the short-, mid- and long-term picture
that goes into these types of maps (for the Keetch-Byram map, 800 is bad, 0 is
good):




$2 billion and counting. Bring on the rain.

Gary McManus
Associate State Climatologist
Oklahoma Climatological Survey
(405) 325-2253