Ticker for June 19, 2012

                
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The Disaster Booby Prize

Wikipedia defines a "booby prize" as "A joke prize usually given in
recognition of a terrible performance or last-place finish ... Booby prizes are
sometimes humorously and jokingly coveted as an object of pride."

Well, there's no pride for this type of recognition, and our first place rank
for number of FEMA Major Disaster declarations since the year 2000, by state,
is highly akin to a last-place finish. The Major Disaster declarations are not
to be confused with the other declarations you might hear about (i.e.,
Emergency declarations and Fire Management Assistance declarations, or
agricultural drought-related disaster declarations).

The Presidential Disaster Declaration announcement from FEMA of a few days ago
covering the damages caused by severe storms from April 28-May 1, 2012, in
Alfalfa, Craig, Grant, Kay and Nowata counties places Oklahoma's 2000-2012 tally
at 33. Kansas gratefully stands a bit behind at 26 with Missouri and New York
tied for third at 25. Here are the unlucky top-10 (11).

State       Major Declared Disasters (2000-2012)
OK                        33
KS                        26
MO                        25
NY                        25
KY                        24
NE                        22
AL                        22
TN                        22
FL                        21
AR                        20
WV                        20

A lot of our least fond recent memories are included in that total of 33 ...
severe storms, tornadoes, flooding, blizzards, wildfires, ice storms, a
strengthening tropical storm, etc.

You would think coastal states like Florida and Alabama might be a bit farther
up the list with tropical systems causing havoc, but such is not the case (I
would hypothesize that I've seen some majorly disastrous refereeing in the state
of Florida recently, but I don't want to sound biased). Hurricane and tropical
storm strikes along the coast are actually a bit rare.

Looking at the totals since 1953, when the first declaration was made, Oklahoma
drops to third place with a count of 71. The much larger states of Texas (86)
and California (78) come in at the top two spots. Still an impressive yet
undesirable distinction for Oklahoma.

The good news is we only have one declaration for 2012 thus far. Let's hope
the number stays there. Oklahoma's numbers by year look like this. Please
remember that these are grouped by when the declaration was made, which is not
necessarily the same as when the disaster occurred.

Year       Declarations
2012            1
2011            4
2010            4
2009            3
2008            5
2007            7
2006            2
2005            0
2004            0
2003            2
2002            1
2001            3
2000            1
TOTAL           33

2007 was obviously a really exciting year with three declarations for severe
winter storms and four for severe storms/flooding/tornadoes. One of those
severe winter storm declarations was for an ice storm that struck the Panhandle
at the end of 2006. The years of 2004 and 2005 were exceedingly boring by
Oklahoma weather standards.

Boring is good. A dullard like myself would know! And if you want to be really
bored, move to Colorado or Rhode Island. They've each only had three declarations
since 2000.

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