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
