News - Blogs - Oklahoma drought update Evapotranspiration

Oklahoma drought update: "Evapotranspiration!"
Published: 1/19/2012 2:21 PM
Last Modified: 1/19/2012 2:21 PM

Green Country? Not really, but as this map from the Oklahoma Mesonet shows, there's haves and have nots. Here, this map shows how many days parts of Oklahoma have gone without at least 0.25 of an inch of precipitation.

Someday, I will find a way to include the word "antidisestablishmentarianism" in this blog.

Until then, I will settle for this word: "Evapotranspiration."

Unacceptable by most spellchecking devices, evapotranspiration is the loss of moisture from the soil due to evaporation and transpiration (use by plants), said Oklahoma Climatological Survey associate state climatologist Gary McManus.

And the lack of evapotranspiration is exactly why our map is not blazing in tons dark red D4, despite higher than normal temperatures and lower than normal precipitation.

As per tradition, can you spot the state drought map differences?

Hint: Look to south-central Oklahoma.

Now, here is your traditional gif to make the differences more obvious:

Once again, a subtle change, thanks to 1-2 inches of rain down south to move that part of Oklahoma from beige - D1 for "moderate drought," to yellow - D0 for "abnormally dry." A few areas have also moved from D0 to nothing at all.

While Tulsa County and northeastern Oklahoma have been kind of dormant in the drought category (aside from last week's major update involving local lake levels, that you can check out here), take some solace in how far the state has come since August. Here's another gif to remind you of how bad things once were:

Dark red - D4 for exceptional drought - once covered a majority of the state, while all of Oklahoma, 100 percent, was at least D2 for moderate drought. Ugggh.

Alas, it is almost spring -- or it at least looks and feels like it some days. That means, evapotranspiration is right around the corner, coupled with warmer weather. And if we have any more months like we've had so far in January (0.02 of an inch of precipitation), it's going to get bad. Fast.

--Althea Peterson

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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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