Ticker for June 16, 2022

                
MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ...
June 16, 2022      June 16, 2022      June 16, 2022      June 16, 2022


We give up




It's chaos, Ladies and Gentlemen (and the rest of you hooligans). Absolute chaos.
Even this steady-state summer weather pattern is chaotic, given that we haven't
seen this type of summer weather in about a decade. Oh, tired of it already? You
should have to write about this stuff! But hey, at least the Panhandle (the best
place to live on the planet) got its look at an early fall yesterday, thanks to
a cold front that is already dissipated like the hair on top of my head.



For the rest of us, it was back to blast furnace mode, with blazing hot weather
and winds gusting in the 30s and 40s.



For those parts of the state that have come out of drought before the onset of this
throwback summer, consider yourselves lucky (come on, just do it!) because for
parts of the state, they're only gonna get worse before they get better. Yeah,
that's Dalton wisdom! I, too, thought he would be bigger.



The crazy weather, which is not really an accurate description for Oklahoma
because it is more normal than not, did bring us those very generous rain totals
that helped eliminate that drought, mostly over the last 60 days.







And that has led to the improvements we have seen in the Drought Monitor, wiping
out areas of drought that have been in place since late last summer! At 30% of
the state considered in drought, that's the lowest total we've seen since Sept.
14, 2021.



Where are we headed? Well, it looks like the western Panhandle might get in on
some of the Desert Southwest (I prefer to visit the Dessert Southwest myself)
Monsoon season coming up in the next couple of weeks. It is the rainy season
for most of the Panhandle, so hopefully it pans out.


Oof! That's a pretty thin hope, but it is possible. And the rest of us are NOT
going to be celebrating Festivus anytime soon.



And here's the really ugly part. Hey, I heard that!



Fall will be here before you know it. Then summer again. Then a dose of winter.
Back to fall. And so on, and so forth.

Gary McManus
State Climatologist
Oklahoma Mesonet
Oklahoma Climatological Survey
gmcmanus@mesonet.org