News - Blogs - Challenge Spot the subtle Oklahoma drought differences

Challenge: Spot the subtle Oklahoma drought differences
Published: 12/6/2012 11:42 AM
Last Modified: 12/6/2012 11:49 AM

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.

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Almanac

Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun
Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec

	Temperature		Precipitation
Date	High Temp	Low Temp	Total	Month to date	Historical average
1	44°	16°	0	0.00	0.05
2	59°	24°	0	0.00	0.11
3	57°	33°	0	0.00	0.16
4	68°	37°	Trace	0.00	0.21
5	69°	29°	0	0.00	0.26
6	66°	33°	0	0.00	0.32
7	59°	38°	0.05	0.05	0.38
8	51°	34°	0	0.05	0.44
9	44°	36°	0.01	0.06	0.51
10	62°	37°	0.07	0.13	0.57
11	54°	28°	0	0.13	0.64
12	44°	30°	0.25	0.38	0.70
13	55°	40°	0.01	0.39	0.76
14	°	°			0.83
15	°	°			0.89
16	°	°			0.95
17	°	°			1.02
18	°	°			1.09
19	°	°			1.16
20	°	°			1.23
21	°	°			1.31
22	°	°			1.38
23	°	°			1.46
24	°	°			1.53
25	°	°			1.61
26	°	°			1.69
27	°	°			1.77
28	°	°			1.85

TEMPERATURE

RAINFALL

SNOWFALL

Weather World

Follow Jerry Wofford on Twitter for updates during severe weather conditions.

Tulsa weather milestones of 2013 (as of Feb. 12)

Highest temperature: 70 on Jan. 11 (Record: 115 on Aug. 15, 1936)
Lowest temperature: 15 on Jan. 16 (Record: Minus-16 on Jan. 22, 1930)
Hottest month (average): 40.5 degrees in January (Record: 91.7 degrees on July 1980)
Coldest month (average): 40. 5 degrees in January (Record: 21.7 in January 1918)
Most snowfall (day): 0.1 of an inch on Feb. 12(Record: 13.2 inches on Feb. 1, 2011)
Most snowfall (month): 0.1 of an inch in February(Record: 22.5 inches in February 2011)
Most rainfall (day): 0.91 of an inch on Jan. 29 (Record: 9.27 inches on May 26-27, 1984)
Most rainfall (month): 1.54 of an inch in January (Record: 18.18 inches on September 1971)
Highest wind speed: 30 mph on Jan. 30
Previous day with any rain: Feb. 12
Previous day with 1 inch or more of rain: Oct. 17, 2012
Previous day with any snow: Feb. 12
Previous day with freezing temperatures: Feb. 12
Read regular updates on Oklahoma's unpredictable weather and learn more about meteorology from the Tulsa office of the National Weather Service.

>> Visit the main weather page
>> Send us your weather photos
>> Meet the forecasters

Contributors
Staff Writer Althea Peterson started writing for the Tulsa World in March 2007 after previous stops at the Norman Transcript in 2006 and the Oklahoma Gazette in 2005. She followed her older brother from rural Wisconsin (with a public school that never seemed to call snow days) to the University of Oklahoma, but did not follow his pursuit to study meteorology. However, she tries to find as many opportunities to report on the weather as possible.

Staff Writer Jerry Wofford came to the Tulsa World in 2010 from The Manhattan Mercury in Manhattan, Kan. Originally from western Arkansas and a graduate of the University of Oklahoma, Jerry has lived in Tornado Alley his entire life and is one of those people who goes outside when the sirens go off.

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