The was the rainfall total for June 15 from midnight to 5:55 p.m., according to the Oklahoma Mesonet. Nice little shower!
The deluge earlier this month was exciting. For a second, I though that maybe the near-record parched May was just a fluke and June was going to bring us more of that wonderful precipitation we received in March and April.
I mean, it rained the first four days of the month in Tulsa, including 3.32 inches that fell June 4.
Well, LOLJK. It turns out that was the fluke. It was about a week and a half until we had any rain again, and that was just 0.18 inches at TIA (and 0.4 inches at Riverside).
The theme this month again has been hot and dry. And just after we had vanquished that pesky drought that plagued us last year in eastern Oklahoma, it had started to creep back in.
Much of the state was in the “abnormally dry” category from the U.S. Drought Monitor, the cusp of a drought. Some places in southeast Oklahoma had drought classification, while drought in parts of western Oklahoma, especially the panhandle, persisted.
The most recent drought map, released Thursday, showed some improvement in southern Oklahoma from rains that tracked across western and central Oklahoma and general improvement overall. And if it didn’t improve, it at least didn’t get worse.
Will things improve for the next drought map? Maybe. We did get rain here early Friday morning, but it wasn’t much. We’re still way ahead of the average for the month, but Tulsa is down about 2 inches for the year, which is much better than where we were this time last year. There are also chances of rain in the forecast for the coming days, albeit slight chances.
We’re about to transition into those summer months that are notoriously dry and brutally hot. So whatever rain we get now will be what help us through till fall. If I were a betting man, I’d say that drought map could get a little more colorful before we get to the “…ber” months.
--Jerry Wofford
