This is one of those weeks where the U.S. Drought Monitor's differences are so tiny that we have to take drastic measures to find the differences.
You can view this week's report
here.Now... the differences. Here's last week's map next to this week's
If you are having trouble, here are some hints:
1- The differences are only in D3 for extreme drought (bright red) and D4 for exceptional drought (dark red).
2- Oklahoma was 90.5 percent D3 last week, but is 90.56 percent this week.
3- Oklahoma was 34.46 percent D4 last week, but is 34.56 percent this week.
4- Yes, that means you are looking for hundredth of a percent differences this week from last week.
If you are still stuck, here is an animated GIF image to show Nov. 27 and Dec. 4 overlapping:
Using the GIF, I was able to spot three distinct differences... but even now I'm not sure if that's all of them.
1- The Panhandle's D4 region expands to the Texas border in Texas County (the middle Panhandle county).
2- D2 (orange, for severe drought) expands slightly in northeast Oklahoma in northern Cherokee and Adair counties.
3- Creek County (southwest of Tulsa County) gains a tiny spot of D2 near its southwest corner.
In a nutshell, despite some northeast Oklahoma rain last Monday, our drought situation is mostly unchanged from last week.
--Althea Peterson
Don't forget to send in your snowfall total guesses for our winter. The last day to send Jerry your guess is FRIDAY at 5 p.m. Find out about the contest
here, and send Jerry your guesses at
jerry.wofford@tulsaworld.com.
An important addendum to the contest: Also send in the date Tulsa will receive the first measurable snow. That will be used as a tiebreaker.
