Ticker for July 11, 2018

                
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July 11, 2018      July 11, 2018      July 11, 2018      July 11, 2018


Summer's so skinny...


Remember that funny saying about skinny people (if you're one of them, go ahead
and brag)..."they're so skinny they have to run around in the shower to get wet?"
Well, that's sort of what summer rainfall in Oklahoma is like, if these showers
we get have trouble hitting one of our 120 Mesonet sites. Take last night.

No, please.

Here you see the 24-hour rain totals after some classic summertime popcorn showers
popped up yesterday. Notice how very few actually hit Mesonet sites?



Hobart and Walters were splattered with 1.63 inches and 1.26 inches, respectively.
But we had quite a burst of rain in Jefferson County down south that managed to
completely miss our Waurika and Ringling Mesonet sites.



That's really unfortunate for Ringling. They've now gone 51 days without at least
a quarter-inch of rainfall in any single day. A very odd little pocket of dryness
down in south central Oklahoma.



BUT, it's also a symptom of the continuing dry weather that is enhancing drought
along the periphery of the state, including much of the border along the Red
River over the last 90 days.







Given that it's July, don't expect many changes to our current weather. Not to
say we can't have big changes, but we shouldn't count on them. They would be
out of the ordinary. Maybe our only solution is to make the Mesonet sites mobile
and have them run around the state getting wet?

Or just wash your car. That usually triggers rain.

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