Ticker for March 7, 2023

                
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Disparity




I'm definitely burying the lede here, but I'm just so excited that we MIGHT NOT
have to suffer through yet another cold, dreary spring break here in Oklahoma that
I'm putting it on Blast! Originally there were fears of snow, then cold rains, now
it looks like we might actually sneak out some seasonable-to-above seasonable
temperatures. If that's the case, let it rain! Well, to get back to the lede,
let it rain anyway.

Hey, did ya know that in order for Goodwell (central Panhandle) to accumulate the
14 inches of rain that Broken Bow (far SE OK) has recorded in the last 60 days,
you have to go back 365 days?

Well if ya did, you're WRONG, because it's actually 646 days! That's right, all
the way back to May 31, 2021, 22 months ago! That might need another exclamation
point. "...22 months ago!!"

Here's what the accumulation map looks like if we track the rain totals all the
way back to May 17, 2021.





HOLY YOU-KNOW-WHAT (MOLEY...MACKEREL...HAVES AND HAVE-NOTS, BATMAN!...if you
chose something else, pardon YOUR French).

Drought was just an inkling in our collective minds back on that day, with only
5% of the state in Moderate drought and 1% in Severe drought.



Well, we can't take a time machine backwards and give the Panhandle more rain
because 1) we don't have time machines, and 2) we can't even give folks more
rain NOW. And with the SE half of the state forecast (ah ah ahhhh..."forecast,"
NOT "forecasted") to receive another 1-3 inches of rain, and the NW half
forecast to get...less than that over the next few days, I'm afraid that
disparity in rainfall amounts is only going to get worse.



At this point, I'm hoping for the old State Climatologist jinx factor, which
never fails to make me look stupid...EXCEPT in the case of me trying to jinx
hair back on my head.

That still hasn't worked.

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