Ticker for May 31, 2018

                
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May 31, 2018 May 31, 2018 May 31, 2018 May 31, 2018


How to make a drought map useless




You spend a good 8-10 hours or so crafting a drought map, then that joker Bob
Ross comes in and paints right over your masterpiece! Okay, that's not what
REALLY happened, but if we did get some help from Bob with this week's rains,
we'll take it. But, it does make today's release of the new Drought Monitor map
for Oklahoma a bit dated. As you know, we can only consider the rains that have
fallen up to Tuesday morning around 7am, so anything after that is a fly in the
ointment (or gravy, since it DOES relieve drought). A fly in the gravy?

At any rate, here is the newest U.S. Drought Monitor map for Oklahoma. Oklahoma
Drought Monitor map...we hardly knew ya!



Add the rains of the last two days to what has fallen the five previous to that
and you have a pretty good looking rain map!



We still have some work to do, as illustrated by the 30- and 60-day percent of
normal rainfall maps.





Especially since we're now headed for a summer doldrums pattern with our
mid-summer heat dome building up and over us about a month earlier than normal.



Here comes the heat! As if yesterday's highs weren't enough.





How does that heat index of 109 degrees look to ya? Better embrace it because
that's a preview of coming attractions. What do you think is going to happen to
all this rain that just fell once the heat dome settles over it?

You'll be wearing it.

I guess we can wait until fall and have Bob Ross paint us a good cold front
here and there, ruining our heat index map. Just give it 5 months or so.

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


May 31 in Mesonet History

Record Value Station Year
Maximum Temperature 107°F WAUR 1998
Minimum Temperature 36°F BOIS 2004
Maximum Rainfall 5.41″ OKCN 2013

Mesonet records begin in 1994.

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