Agricultural News
Drought Gradually Slipping Away as La Nina Ending
Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:21:09 CST
Drought has hung on in a lot of the state of Oklahoma as last week's Drought Monitor showed that 66% of Oklahoma was still in a moderate to exceptional drought. That number could shrink further. as soaking rains hit across northwestern and north central Oklahoma at the end of last week- many locations receiving two to three inches of rainfall.
The map above gives us a good perspective of the amount of rain that we have received since the beginning of the calendar year. After the extremely dry conditions of the fall 2010 into the spring and summer of 2011- these rains in January and the first couple of days of February are most welcome.
The map below is from the US Drought Monitor- and is the state of Oklahoma as of the middle of last week- before those rains crossed the state. Note that the heaviest rains in south central Oklahoma up across southeastern Oklahoma has brought those counties in Little Dixie out of drought conditions. The Drought Monitor map for Oklahoma and the US comes out Thursday morning, February 9th.
Worries about being dry this spring continues to be the coffee shop talk in many western counties. However, Dr. Art Douglas, retired professor from Creighton University, predicted this past Friday at the 2012 Cattlefax Market Outlook Conferece (that is a regular part of the annual Cattle Industry Convention) that La Nina is rapidly winding down- and in fact he sees the momentum picking up for an El Nino event later this year.
That could push the jet stream further south and keep rain making systems rolling across Oklahoma and Texas often enough to push back these last stubborn areas of drought in both Oklahoma and Texas.
We have the audio of the presentation made by Art Douglas from this past Friday's Cattlefax Market Outlook program. Click on the LISTEN BAR below to hear his comments.
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