Agricultural News
Meteorologist Travis Meyer Doesn't See Any Break in Brutally Dry Weather Anytime Soon
Fri, 07 Dec 2012 16:15:16 CST
What a difference a year makes. With the drought deepening with each passing week, it's hard to imagine that last fall was much different. Then, we had come off of a very dry summer, but we did get some rain in the fall. This year has been nothing but dry.
News On 6 Meteorologist Travis Meyer visited with Radio Oklahoma Network Farm Director Ron Hays at the Tulsa Farm Show. He said this fall is definitely different than last year and it looks to continue for the foreseeable future.
"This year is just pounding and pounding and pounding on us. Until we get something significant-and, I mean, we keep looking, but there aren't any of those major storms. And I keep saying 'Oh, another 20- or 30 days. Maybe within the next two months if we keep thinking that we're going to see a big soaking event, it eventually has to happen.' We know that. But, right now this is absolutely even stunning to a meteorologist, such as myself."
Meyer said surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean are partly responsible for the dry conditions now being experienced in Oklahoma, but there are other factors as well.
"The biggest thing is always the jet stream. We've talked about that. TV weather guys have talked about that for 20 or 30 years. The big thing continues to be that the jet stream is cutting us off and it's kind of keeping all the storms to the north and to the east. And the eastern part of the country is starting to get very wet. And Louisiana, which was in a horrendous drought earlier in the summer, mid-summer, has now changed to where they have excessive amounts of water, so it's not that far away. But, if the jet stream doesn't change, we're not going to see any significant change."
He said that as we move into winter, we will see some changes, but they will be very slight.
"Nothing that's real significant. We do have a change happening now that is going to allow a few more of these storm systems to roll in, colder air coming in, but, of course, that's normal. We're supposed to have at least that. And we see that most of the heavier rains are going to stay kind of east of us or in the eastern part of the state. The far northeast corner of the state has been doing OK.
"At this time there are some changes that are noteworthy that could actually give us some rainfall-not significant-but some rainfall or precipitation, since it's winter, that could get us at least for the next month."
Meyer said the atmosphere has a tendency to develop a momentum that, once it's in motion, tends to say in motion.
"When you have 34 out of 38 months that are above normal temperature and below normal precipitation, you know you have a series or cycle going on. And, so, until that breaks, I can't forecast anything different because I don't see anything significant changing."
The unrelenting drought conditions are affecting Meyers' own ranching operation just as they are affecting everyone else.
"I'd say the number one problem-and I know this probably goes for the whole state, but especially here-I don't have water. I am down to my last pond out of six ponds. And that pond has about five to six feet of water and it's going down every day because all my cattle are drinking out of it. The creeks are dry which normally have water in them at this time of year. Those creeks are dry. All my friends that are ranching, same story, they're running low on water. If we do not get those significant two- to four- or five-inch heavy rains that cause, basically, a flood. I've never prayed for a flood in eastern Oklahoma in my life. And, so, this proves that we must be really messed up right now. If we don't have that, I don't know how we can sustain, I wouldn't say, agriculture, but I would say more ranching. I don't know where cattle are going to get their water. You can't afford to buy it from the cities because it's very expensive to being with there. It's not a win-win situation this year, that's for sure."
Click on the LISTEN BAR below to hear Ron Hays's full interview with Travis Meyer.
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