News - Blogs - Isaac brings drought relief to some but others pick up slack

Isaac brings drought relief to some, but others pick up slack
Published: 9/6/2012 12:07 PM
Last Modified: 9/6/2012 12:10 PM

I was anxious to look at the U.S. Drought Monitor’s latest weekly report this morning, not because I was expecting drastic changes here, but because I was hoping for drastic changes across the country thanks to the heavy rains brought on shore from the remnants of Hurricane Isaac.

And I was right about those changes…sort of.

Oklahoma’s drought condition actually worsened from last week to this week, but the changes were so miniscule, it’s really not worth it to mention the numbers. That stagnation is despite the rain that fell in parts of Oklahoma last week. Tulsa had 0.09 inches of rain that could be attributed to Isaac last Friday. I thought it would have been more; that swampy, humid, heavy air made for a pretty awful moving day for me.

Looking to our east, where Isaac took more direct aim, there was drastic improvement. Nearly half of Arkansas was in the most extreme drought condition, D4, last week. Now, that percentage is down to 12 percent. Every category is down compared to last week, with 0.16 of the state in no drought condition! While that is probably about the size of a city block, the reduction across the state is great news.

Of course, you’re going to see a nice reduction in drought conditions when you have 8 inches of rain fall, as several places had in Arkansas.

Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky all saw nice improvement thanks to Isaac.

But looking at the whole of the country, drought conditions worsened slightly. An expansion of the worst drought category in Kansas and Nebraska made up for any improvement from Isaac. Seventy percent of Nebraska is in the worst drought category, a drastic difference from the last week, when 23 percent of the state was in D4.

Back in Tulsa, the forecast is looking mighty fine. One more day today of near-100 degree weather before rain chances tonight, tomorrow and Friday night. That rain is associated with a strong cold front that is actually worth of being called a cold front. The forecast high Saturday is, get this, 78 degrees. Fahrenheit. That’s 20 degrees lower than the forecast high today. That is awesome.

It will get back into the 90s next week, but I don’t care. I’m going to take serious advantage of this weekend. I suggest you do the same.

--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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