A tractor sits in a field surrounded by rolls of hay near Scott, Ark., Thursday, June 28, 2012. Cattle have no forage so ranchers are feeding them hay during drought conditions which is expected to lead to a winter hay shortage. (AP Photo/Danny Johnston)
I fully expected this morning’s drought monitor update to show an expansion of our current dry conditions. But with the 0.4 inches of rain that fell last week in Tulsa, I thought some areas could escape more expansion.
Well, that wasn’t the case.
At all.
Virtually the entire state of Oklahoma is now at least “abnormally dry,” according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. While that isn’t technically drought classification yet, it’s sort of a tipping point.
Last week, a little over two-thirds of the state was at least abnormally dry, with about one-third in drought. This week, it’s 99.68 in abnormally dry conditions and 48 percent in at least D-1, or moderate drought.
That quick decline is thanks to the excessive and oppressive heat, strong sunshine and lack of regular rainfall that leads to a sapping of soil moisture. There have been five days of rain this month, most remarkable was the 3.32 inches on June 4. That’s not enough to sustain our moisture levels. As of today, June is now behind average for the first time this month.
And we all know how July and August really doesn’t usually give us much rainfall, so the situation will likely only worsen over the coming months.
Nationwide, the situation is almost as grim.
About 72 percent of the lower 48 is now at least abnormally dry, which Greg McManus over at the Oklahoma Climatological Survey
points out is the highest that percentage has been since the drought monitor began in 1999. Across the border in Arkansas, 31 percent is in the D-3 category, which is the fourth most severe level. That’s a jump from last week’s level of 0.21 percent. That’s a big jump.
If you’re going to celebrate the Fourth of July with fireworks in Arkansas,
don’t. Virtually the whole state is under a burn ban.
At least one state bucked the trend:
Florida. Mostly thanks to Tropical Storm Debby, which dumped a years worth of rain in a weekend, the state went from 54 percent in drought status to virtually zero in a week. Though, with all that rain, flooding was widespread and water is still at high levels.
But, it's not nearly as bad in Oklahoma as it was just one year ago. Then, a third of the state was in the most severe category, with 76 percent--including Tulsa County--was in some sort of drought category, and it got much worse as the summer went on. Right now, most of Tulsa County is just "abnormally dry."
But looking at the forecast trend of hot and dry, it will likely get worse before it gets better.
--Jerry Wofford
