News - Blogs - Drought jumps ahead just in time for summer

Drought jumps ahead just in time for summer
Published: 6/22/2012 12:41 PM
Last Modified: 6/22/2012 12:41 PM

Franklin Jones waters his line of beets Wednesday, June 20, 2012 in garden space off of Nuttman Ave., in Fort Wayne, Ind. Jones has been tending to his garden for the last 11 or 12 years and donates the vegetables to family and friends. (AP Photo/The Journal Gazette, Swikar Patel)

It’s been summer now for about two days. Do you feel it yet? Well, you may not but I bet your garden does.

OK, it probably feels a little better now after we had 0.4 inches of rain in Tulsa Thursday morning, and after the whopping 3.32 inches of rain earlier this month, but the dry May really hit us hard. The drought monitor showed as much this week.

A third of the state is now in at least the moderate drought level, including a swath in eastern Oklahoma through several counties and skimming Tulsa County. Southeast Oklahoma’s water woes expanded more to the severe drought category from moderate last week.

Other drought areas in the state seem to be in a perpetual state of drought: Southwest Oklahoma and the Panhandle. But even those areas expanded last week.

It’s a significant improvement over the drought conditions we were experiencing this time last year. About a third of the state then was in the most severe drought category.

The conditions are spreading from both sides of the state, with persistent drought conditions in the Texas panhandle and worsening drought in Arkansas creeping into Oklahoma. Ninety percent of Texas is still dry and 95 percent of Arkansas is in a drought.

It comes after the exceptionally dry May. That was the kicker. A wet March (2.95 inches above normal) wasn’t enough to stem every other month that has been below so far. For the year, Tulsa is about 2.4 inches below normal.

Then comes summer. The dry season. Part of the reason this area of the world was so affectionately called the Great American Desert.

Going into summer means whatever we have now is it. Any saving graces likely won’t be gullywashers that last for days and replenish our shortfalls. Combine the dry weather with the hot (over 100 next week) and windy conditions, and that drought is likely to continue spreading.

And looking at the forecast, there are no chances of rain. Sunny and hot. I don’t know about you, but after the last few weeks and especially after last night, I’ve had about enough of the Heat. (OK, last NBA Finals-related weather pun you'll see from me)

Well, that was depressing. So, time for some good news! At least it’s summer, and it’s been lovely so far this month. Hopefully you’ve been out to enjoy it or will as the season moves. And at least we’re not Arkansas, where the map of counties under a burn ban seems to grow every week, making a raucous Independence Day a dud.

--Jerry Wofford

Reader Comments

Show: Newest First

Learn About Our Comment Policy

To post comments on tulsaworld.com, you must be an active Tulsa World print or digital subscriber and signed into your account.

To sign in to your account, go to tulsaworld.com/signin.
To activate your print subscription for unlimited digital access and to post comments, go to tulsaworld.com/activate.
To purchase a subscription, go to tulsaworld.com/subscribe.

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.

Subscribe to this blog

Temperature
High Temp:	(Example: 45)
Low Temp:	(Example: 45)
Temperature Date:	(Example: 1/1/2011)

Precipitation
Total:	(Example: '.01)
Month to date:	(Example: '.01)
Normal month to date:	(Example: '.01)

2/2013	1/2013	12/2012	11/2012	10/2012	9/2012
8/2012	7/2012	6/2012	5/2012	4/2012	3/2012
2/2012	1/2012	12/2011	11/2011	10/2011	9/2011
8/2011	7/2011	6/2011

Your bookmark will appear on your Profile page. Please give it a title, and short description so that visitors to your page will understand where the bookmark leads.
Bookmark Title :

Bookmark Text :