Ticker for June 17, 2024

                
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Inside Out Drought




Don't look now...



I TOLD YOU NOT TO LOOK! I literally wrote (get it?) "Don't look now," but you
still looked, and you have nobody to blame but yourself. UNFROSTED strawberry
Pop-Tarts...ugh.

Here's another thing to not look at, since I have your stomach in knots...are we
seeing the development of another flash drought episode in Oklahoma, which would
be our third in the last three summers? The rainfall maps are getting ugly (and
not getting much help from this week's rainfall).











Right, so we're going about 2 weeks without a significant dose of moisture for
most of the state, and even longer in a few areas. Shorter in a few others. Add
that unfortunate statistic(s) to our recent heat wave, and things start to get
a bit worrisome.



Plus, here comes the wind to do some more damage.



The good news is we're not in flash drought yet. We still have pretty good
soil moisture reserves, although our friend Anxiety is whispering to us that
that can disappear pretty quickly this time of year. NW OK is looking sorta
serious NOW, however.



Anxiety is all talk, right? Well, all THOUGHT, but we need rain, badly. Or
goodly. Pick your adverb, depending on your perspective. It doesn't look like
we'll get much help from that tropical wave/depression/storm (or whatever ends
up forming), as it's forecast to stay to out south. We might get enough moisture
up this way for some showers, but it doesn't look like any widespread impacts,
except some nasty humidity, maybe. We will see those temperatures calm down for
a few days coming up, but then we go right back to the frying pan.







I don't want to deal with another flash drought. You don't want to deal with
another flash drought. We don't want to deal with another flash drought.

Still...better than tornadoes, no? And UNFROSTED Strawberry Pop-Tarts.

Gary McManus
State Climatologist
Oklahoma Mesonet
Oklahoma Climatological Survey
gmcmanus@ou.edu