News - Blogs - Drought status the same but this rain should help

Drought status the same, but this rain should help
Published: 1/10/2013 11:11 AM
Last Modified: 1/10/2013 11:11 AM

Drought conditions as of Jan. 8

The latest drought monitor released today looks an awful lot like last week’s map. We are just marking time now.

The good news is the latest report does not include the rain we received across the state yesterday and today. It hasn’t been the massive event that folks down in Texas saw, but nearly every Oklahoma Mesonet station received rain over the past two days.

But first, the drought. The percentages are exactly the same from last week. Exactly the same. Last week, 37.06 percent of the state was in the most severe drought category, D4. Same today. Nearly all – 94.89 percent – of the state was in the next most severe, D3, last week. This week, the same.

The ongoing drought led federal officials to declare the entire state a disaster area, which makes low-interest loans available to farmers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Do note that the drought update comes out on Thursdays, but the period for the current map is through 8 a.m. Tuesday. So, this map does not reflect the rain seen across the state. It’s been a great rain event for many, as you’ll see when we do the numbers.

The two day rain total winner from the Oklahoma Mesonet was Broken Bow with 1.69 inches as of 10:30 a.m. Thursday. Second place was a tie: Durant and Madill had 1.52 inches. If your Oklahoma geography is a little rusty, both those spots are in south and east Oklahoma, right along the border with Texas.

Yesterday, both Freedom and Alva had gone 104 consecutive days without 0.25 inches of rain. Well, good news! In the last 12 hours, Freedom had 0.87 inches and Alva had 0.76. Soak it up, friends.

Our rain total in Tulsa is not nearly as impressive or exciting. In the last 24 hours, we’ve had 0.15 inches of rain. Our total this week that includes the rain we got Tuesday afternoon and evening is 0.24 inches.

My uninformed yet obvious prediction is that next week’s drought map will be different than the past few weeks in the direction toward improvement. At least I hope so.

--Jerry Wofford

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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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