Ticker for September 9, 2019

                
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September 9, 2019  September 9, 2019  September 9, 2019  September 9, 2019


The Great State Rain of Oklahoma




You want a good rain after the dry times of August (this year notwithstanding...or
even notwithsitting)? Call the State Fair of Oklahoma committee. Heck, maybe we
can get them to have the Fair from July-September, instead of just September. I
don't think we could handle all the water! Yes, you can use this summer as an
example, at least for parts of the state. There's a reason we have summer, and
why it's climatologically dry -- or at least why the evaporation and usage by
living plants exceeds rainfall; things are just supposed to work that way.

For you newcomers wondering what the heck I'm talking about (I would imagine by
now even longtime Ticker readers think that with every Ticker!), there's a
legendary cause-and-effect of rain coinciding with the State Fair in OKC. We won't
work to dispel or confirm it right now, but it does just happen to coincide with
the annual return of the jet stream to our neck of the woods, after a long
vacation in the North; climatologically speaking, that is. So when it starts to
dip back down this way, we get more storm systems, more chances for rain, etc.

It's not like it's been 90 days without rain, however. As we alluded to above,
this has been one of the rainiest summers on record, and for the northeast, it's
been out of this world, especially in August. But it has been about 10 days
without a good rain, and even longer for our drought-stricken areas in
southern OK.



There will be a chance for a few showers/storms across NW OK the next couple of
days, but the real show arrives on Thursday (STATE FAIR OPENING DAY),
continuing into Friday.



Then the weather will cool down, at least for a few days.

Don't get used to it though.



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