Ticker for June 21, 2018

                
MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ...
June 21, 2018      June 21, 2018      June 21, 2018      June 21, 2018


Yukon? WeCan!




Before we get to all that nasty drought business, let us officially welcome Yukon
America to the official list of Oklahoma Mesonet sites! Home to the Millers (and
the Johnsons, and the Smiths, and various other families...I shan't list them all
here for lack of space and census info), the Yukon site is fills an important need
for that densely populated area between El Reno and our OKC East and Spencer
sites.

The site is officially located 2 miles north of Yukon in Canadian County, and
was commissioned on June 18, 2018. So here's a snapshot of the ENTIRETY of the
Yukon Mesonet site (YUKO) since it's inception.



If you want to visit the site to take a look...don't. Just leave it alone. It
hasn't done anything to you, has it?

That brings the Mesonet station total to 120. Here's a look at our newest site map.

https://content.mesonet.org/ticker/archive/20180621/MesonetSiteLocations.pdf

Now, onto drought. It's rather fitting that our newest site has yet to measure
a single drop of rain. There are some other locations that haven't had much in
nearly 9 months! Thus, the reason for the continued nasty colors across western
OK on the latest Drought Monitor map.





Notice on the latest change map that we've had quite a bit of change over the
last week. One note of importance is the increase in drought across the far
southeast. Luckily, that area received a good dose of rain over the last couple
of days, so maybe there's some hope for improvement in that area. And the last
7 days indicates the reason for the various changes in drought fortune.





Onto the forecasts and outlooks. We'll have periodic chances for rain over the
next week or so, with best chances coming on Friday and Saturday. Storm
complexes should form to the west and march to the east/southeast across the
state, especially across northern parts of Oklahoma. The 7-day rain forecast
shows hope!



How about farther out? Hard to say for sure, but the Climate Prediction Center
sees increased odds of warmer than normal July AND July-September periods.





For precip, we have less-than-certain uncertainty. The extreme SE corner of the
state looks drier than normal for both periods, but we see equal odds of
above-, below- and near-normal precip to the northwest of that area.





Take that altogether, add in where drought exists NOW, and what will it look
like at the end of September, at least according to the Seasonal Drought Outlook
from CPC? Well, they see drought improving or being removed across all for the
southwestern quarter of the state.



So a mixed bag of fortunes in those outlooks. Much of it is actually based off
of what is expected to fall in the next week, then add in climatology. So we
really need a good start with some decent rain over the weekend.

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