Ticker for October 23, 2025

                
MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ...
October 23, 2025   October 23, 2025   October 23, 2025   October 23, 2025


Rain vs. Drought




Rain vs. drought, who would win?

One of the most thought-about questions in the world. Well, The U.S. Well,
Oklahoma.

Okay, by me. How's that? The question ranks up there with other mysteries of the
universe, like "Superman vs. Mighty Mouse, who would win?"

Duh! Superman, of course, as famously answered by Teddy in "Stand by Me," because
Mighty Mouse is a cartoon but Superman is a real guy!

But here's the deal: we saw drought increase yet again across the State of
Oklahoma on this week's Drought Monitor map. It may seem odd to have us ask the
national Drought Monitor author for an increase this week when we're seeing
2-4 inches of widespread rains being forecast on the very day the new Drought
Monitor map is released, but that's one of the tenets of the Drought Monitor
process: THOUGH SHALT NOT FACTOR IN FORECASTS FOR THE DROUGHT MONITOR.

So this is what we had to go by:













Deficits galore, all the way out to 120+ days. Yeah, that looks like drought
to me, and if we DIDN'T ask for the increased drought coverage on the map this
week and the forecast didn't pan out (like that's ever happened, right...HEY,
watch the cussing, this is a family Ticker!), then we'd be a week behind in
keeping up with the actual drought severity and impacts.

And these maps should also give you a clue as to why drought might still exist
even if we do get all that 2-4 inches of rain being forecast, because those are
pretty big deficits to overcome.

So the whole danged shooting match starts tonight in this monumental battle
for the state's soil moisture in this rain vs. drought match up, and as per
usual, it comes with the risk of severe weather. Hail and high winds are the
main threat, and while the tornado threat is low, it ain't zero.









LET'S GET READDDDDDYYYYY TO RUMBBBBBBBBBBLLLLLLLLLLE!

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