Agricultural News
Drought Monitor Catches Up; Conditions Show Continued Improvement
Thu, 24 Oct 2013 12:24:22 CDT
The newest U.S. Drought Monitor finally caught up on all the rainfall and the drought impacts that were improved due to that rainfall, says Associate State Ciimatologist Gary McManus. Now the state is about where it was going into mid-summer with most of central, north central, northeast and east central Oklahoma out of any sort of drought/dry designation.
That means 43% of the state is without any color on the drought map, leaving about 57% of the state still in D0-Abnormally Dry to D4-Exceptional drought. Most of the worst conditions are confined to the northwest in the Panhandle and also down to the southeast.
The latest improvements are due to that rainfall of more than a week ago now, but it had come after the 7am Tuesday morning cutoff point for last week's map. That's why there are improvements on this week's map despite any significant rainfall this week (although central Oklahoma saw a nice line of an inch or more, but that was in areas without drought already).
The reason drought hasn't gone completely away down in the southern reaches of the state are evident when you look at the longer-term rainfall maps and that magical Aug. 17 date when the great summer rains shut off and flash drought materialized across the area. (See map below.)
So the drought map continues to be a balancing act between recent rains and the improvements those have brought versus the long-term dryness that not only goes back to Aug. 17, but back to more than three years ago when the drought really got its start in October 2010.
The soil moisture data from the Mesonet down to 24 inches shows where some of the longer-term impacts that I speak of, with dry soils across the southwest, northwest, and even up into north central Oklahoma. When we see things such as that, we start hoping for more rainfall. Luckily, it appears we might have a pretty wet system headed this way next week. Now it might disrupt the trick-or-treat crowd, but that's okay because the moisture is needed in several areas.
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