Oklahoma Mesonet shows 30-day rainfall totals for Oklahoma. Every recording station -- even those in the Panhandle -- had at least an inch of rain.
Last week, I wrote about all the things that made July
not like July. Here’s another: Water in the Arkansas River.
I was driving down Memorial into Bixby last night and the Arkansas was full. Now I don’t make it down to Bixby very often...or, ever. But, the amount of water there caught me by surprise. The tops of trees that normally hang out on the sand banks far from the main channel were a stark indication that this river was misbehaving.
When I said July was not like July in Tulsa because we actually had decent rainfall, I didn’t talk about Wichita. Their summer has been nearly one for the record books.
Since July 1, Wichita has had 13.4 inches of rain. Wichita is now 8.43 inches above normal for the year at 29.25 inches. Wichita is now 9 inches ahead of Tulsa for the year (We’re still 4.29 below normal).
Wichita isn’t alone in the precipitation bounty in Kansas. The southeast corner has seen its fair share, with the Neosho River near Commerce, Okla.,
bursting its banks.
Here are some photos coming out of Kansas this weekend.
Vehicles make their way across the Frank Hart Crossing bridge over a flooded Arkansas River on the morning of Sunday, Aug. 4, 2013, in Hutchinson, Kan. (AP Photo/The Hutchinson News, Lindsey Bauman)
A truck drives by two vehicles left abandoned Sunday morning, Aug. 4, 2013, at the intersection of 16th Avenue and Lorraine St. after heavy rainfall drenched Hutchinson, Kan., overnight. (AP Photo/The Hutchinson News, Sandra J. Milburn)But back to the Arkansas River here. Yes, it’s high due to all that rain in Kansas making its way down the river. But Keystone Lake and Dam do a good job of keeping a lid on the river, leaving us with sandy beaches rather than raging currents.
Right now, the dam is
releasing water at a rate of 30,000 cubic feet per second, with an elevation of 727.15 feet (normal is 723 feet). All that water blasting out of the dam has the Arkansas River at
7.75 feet right now near downtown. But don’t worry: Flood stage at the Arkansas River there is 18 feet. Long way to go before that happens. The last time the Arkansas River was even near flood stage downtown was 1995, when the river was at 15.9 feet.
Like I’ve been saying, to talk about flooding in August is just silly. Well, it especially seems so since the last few late-summers have been bone dry and hot as an oven.
And it looks like we may keep seeing that rainfall over the next week. The latest outlooks from the
Climate Prediction Center have Oklahoma in the above-normal precipitation category. The monthly drought outlook has much of Oklahoma showing improvement and possibly removal of some areas. Again, rare for July and August.
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