Agricultural News
Rains Bring Drought Relief to More of Oklahoma While Still Neglecting Driest Areas
Thu, 23 May 2013 15:12:14 CDT
This week's Drought Monitor map shows drought marching on in some parts of the state, even as it marches right off the map in others, says Associate State Climatologist Gary McManus. This morning's rain shows up as a streak from the northwest to southeast, exceeding more than three inches in some localized areas. Flooding hampered recovery efforts in Moore and south Oklahoma City, prompting flood warnings. The amount of rain this week alone is enough to produce changes in both this week's map and also next week's. Unfortunately, McManus says, there are not nearly enough of those 2-6 inch amounts across western through north central Oklahoma.
Much of eastern Oklahoma is now completely free of drought. At the same time, extreme and exceptional drought increased across western parts of the state. So oddly enough, the state's area completely out of drought rose from 17% to 25%, but the area of exceptional drought rose from 10% to 11%. The area with extreme-exceptional drought fell from 33% to 27%. McManus says the short and sweet explanation is there has been too much rain across central and eastern Oklahoma, and not nearly enough across western Oklahoma and the Panhandle.
There is good news on the horizon, however. McManus says forecasters are now predicting increasing chances for rain in the western part of the state.
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