A woman huddles under an umbrella while walking through the wet streets in downtown Tulsa on Monday, November 21. Nearly an inch of rain fell that day, adding to the 5.37-inch total that fell that month.
MATT BARNARD/Tulsa World
Everybody pry open your memory mind grapes and think back to the last time we had measurable rain in Tulsa. Long time, huh?
It’s been
13 days, in fact. The last time Tulsa had rain was Dec. 26, when 0.03 inches fell. You have to go back to Dec. 19 to see any real substantial rain. We had 0.53 inches then.
You may not have noticed or realized it had been that long, actually. I had been too busy enjoying our above-average temperatures and abundant sunshine to think about rainfall.
Well…what sunshine I can get. Winters really cut down on fun-in-the-sun time thanks to shorter days. There wasn’t any sunshine, but I did get the chance to enjoy some nice lower 50s at
Devil’s Den State Park in Arkansas this weekend. Spent the day on the trails, and it being about 2 hours from Tulsa, definitely worth the drive.
In winter without leaves on the trees, you can see forever from the top of the bluffs. There is a lot to say for rolling green blankets of trees instead of the dull, depressing gray everywhere, but it’s all about finding the beauty where you are, right? From the top of Yellow Rock in the park, there is plenty of beauty.
But, I digress.
This 13-day dry period is the longest since a 16-day dry spell between Sept. 22 and Oct. 8. That was toward the end of our dry, depressing summer when the drought was at its worse.
October was about 2 inches below normal, which was actually the driest month since July. Then came November, which was a gully washer. December was an inch below normal and with a rainless January, it’s nearly a half inch below normal for the month and the year. Not a good way to start the year.
And the whole state has been just about the same. Oklahoma Mesonet records show it’s been about
20 days since 0.1 inches of rain all across the state except the southwest corner, but even there it’s been about 35 days.
The streak could come to an end tomorrow, though. There is a
40 percent chance of rain in Tulsa. Much of the state could see some rain, except the Panhandle (poor Panhandle…). The majority of precip will fall along the Oklahoma/Texas border, though.
Still, it should stay above freezing during the event, so no snow. Still a lot of winter left, though.
Just an aside: You really shouldn’t get at all excited about the prospect of a snowless winter. We’re officially at a trace of snow recorded so far this season (Dec. 22). The
last time we had that little was in 1910. So, the odds are definitely not in our favor.
--Jerry Wofford
