Ticker for May 11, 2021

                
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May 11, 2021       May 11, 2021       May 11, 2021       May 11, 2021


How Low Can Our Highs Go?






Okay, record watch is officially ON for today. I'm sure this will be the talk of
the state, what with all the excitement daily low max temperature records generate
amongst all the "it" crowd; that and the normal battles over the thespian
highlights of Nic Cage vs. Wesley Snipes. Maybe that's the "irs" crowd?

At any rate, we're looking at a waterlogged day today over most of Oklahoma, and
there's nothing really wrong with that other than it's going to keep temperatures
down even further than what we've seen over the last couple of days. It's already
rained on the top and bottom of the state today (and we all know just how
painful that can be), but we should fill in some of the middle later on.







That should add on to some decent totals over the last 24 hours, fill in the
holes, and heck, it's raining now!





All this will help keep drought at bay for another week, if not eradicate more
dry conditions altogether. We've looked at the latest U.S. Pasture and Range
conditions for the U.S., as well as the soil conditions, from the USDA NASS, and
Oklahoma is sitting pretty compared to its neighbors. The pasture and range
condition index for the U.S. is at its lowest point since 2000, mostly thanks
to very bad conditions across the western half of the country. Oklahoma only
has 12% of its pasture and rangeland in poor or very poor shape, compared to
46% for Texas and 65% for New Mexico. Arizona is pitiful at 90%. Meanwhile,
47% of our pasture and rangelands are in good to excellent shape.







Poor North Dakota is really suffering from poor topsoil moisture conditions.
Those folks are getting pounded with drought, as well as the usual suspects
out West.



32% is still a bit higher than what we'd like to see for Oklahoma, so the rain
today and tomorrow should help improve things somewhat.



We could sure use some heat, however, to kick the growth of crops (AND LAWNS)
into high gear. We don't want to mow, but we'd like some more green in the state
to at least make us thing it LOOKS like spring.

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