Ticker for October 23, 2012

                
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October 23, 2012   October 23, 2012   October 23, 2012   October 23, 2012


October rainfall, still coming up short

If you're in Cimarron County, you're golden (or less brown). Far northeastern
Oklahoma? Doing better. The rest of the state, by and large? Well, not so great.
Lots of folks have had none.

Zilch. Zero. Nada. Nil.

October has had a couple of rains, including the biggie a couple of weeks ago,
but for the most part, the state's come up empty. Check out the Mesonet maps for
the month thus far.




The statewide average thus far is 1.09", which sounds pretty paltry. Okay, it IS
pretty paltry. But only the 26th driest Oct. 1-23 since 1921 at 1.43" below
normal. The statewide precipitation time series (1895-2011) shows that the month
is often feast or famine.



(things aren't much better if you go back to Sept. 1 ... 22nd driest Sept. 1-
Oct. 23 since 1921, 2.3" below normal)




But, I'm afraid we're going to be stuck there in the lower regions of that
timeline this year. The latest forecasts and outlooks appear to be pretty dry
for the state through the end of the month.



6-10 and 8-14 day precipitation outlooks



Those don't give a lot of optimism for the first week of November either, but
admittedly, that could change abruptly in just a few days. The next week,
however, looks pretty dry, especially for western Oklahoma.

Now history shows November has some drought relief in it from time to time
(look at last year's total!), but it also has some aridity (check out 2010).



Wettest November in state history was 2004's 6.1" average. Maybe Mother Nature
has another one left in her.

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