Oklahoma has many weather phenomena. We have snow, dust, ice, tornadoes and oh yeah... did I mention wind? Where do you think that Rogers and Hammerstein got the verse in the song from? Well this year has been one for the record books. In more ways than one. We have suffered through a real severe drought. In some areas there has not been any measurable rain in almost 2 and a half months! (see graphic below)
(Image Courtesy of Oklahoma Mesonet)
(Image Courtesy of NWS Norman)
The image above is courtesy of the Oklahoma Mesonet. As you can see we have a few areas of the state that haven't seen rain in a long time. Arnet, in Northwestern Oklahoma, has gone 74 days without a .25 inch of rain or more. The next one is in the Panhandle and it is Hooker. They have gone 73 days with out measurable rain. That is a long time. Had this been a different time and year we would have probably had another mini dust bowl. I don't claim to know about agriculture and soil but I can imagine that you can go for quite a good depth and not find moist soil. I have heard news farm reports that have said that this is going to be a bad Wheat year as well as other grains. You can see why when you look at the graphic.
Also, another thing that we are suffering from is a long term heat wave. Yesterday, there were records broken, more like shattered, all over the Norman Forecast office. (See Graphic below)
(Image Courtesy NWS Norman)
As you can read in the graphic it was hot!!! H O T hot!!! In Oklahoma City we broke a 47 year old record by 4 degrees... now that is hot!!! The normal high temp for yesterday in Oklahoma City was, I believe, 93 degrees. Have I mentioned how hot that is? When you are 17 degrees above normal there is no other way to say that it is.... you guessed it.... HOT!!!
Forecasts for the coming period don't show it improving anytime in the near future. In Oklahoma City, we have a ever so slight chance of rain tomorrow and Tuesday. 20% is about as good as it gets. You never know though. You might get lucky and get under one of those "popcorn" thunderstorms and viola!!! it will become bearable for about an hour or so.
Last image I will leave you with is from the NWS Norman office. This is the Temp outlook for the next couple of days.... and you can read it and yell at me afterwords....
(Image Courtesy of NWS Norman)
Stay cool everyone! Check on your neighbors and the elderly and drink lots of water!
Stay safe!
Bryan.
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