Welcome to December, everyone!
It’s the last month of 2011, which means there are only 31 days left in one of the wackiest weather years in recent memory.
One aspect of the craziness: drought. It hit fast and hard this year and in August and September, desperation was high.
Then came some pretty substantial rains in October (still below normals, but an inch in a day here is pretty nice).
Then November. Sweet, sweet November.
Tulsa ended up 2.56 inches above normal with 5.37 inches for the month. That. Is. Awesome.
So the flash drought saw some pretty rapid improvement.
In the most recent U.S. Drought Monitor map released today, 7.33 percent of the state is currently experiencing no drought conditions. Most of that is in the eastern part of the state.
And only 10.27 percent of the state is in the worst drought category right now.
Flash back to the end of August when 69 percent of the state was suffering through the worse of it. In three months, we went from one of the worst droughts in a generation to an average drought.
We talk a lot about drought here for good reason. People see the damage from tornadoes and wildfires and floods. But the persistent and slow nature of a drought can cause as much if not more damage to the state, especially economically.
In fact, the drought in the southern United States has topped an estimated
$10 billion with four deaths attributed to the drought (to be more accurate, the deaths and damage were attributed to wildfires, which were fueled by the drought).
We’ve seen improvement over on the east side, and that improvement could continue. The latest from the NWS
Climate Prediction Center says more drought improvement will likely occur over the next three months, but only for eastern Oklahoma. Western Oklahoma is still in the red.
In a release from the Oklahoma Climatological Survey, Associate State Climatologist Gary McManus made a good point about the importance of winter moisture. Typically, water demand is lower (by people and by plants) over the next few months, meaning it is an important time for our reservoirs and soils to regenerate and recuperate losses experienced during the summer.
So, take some time today to encourage your soil to start saving, because with
La Nina raging again, it could be a wacky 2012, too.
--Jerry Wofford
