In this Oklahoma Mesonet map showing the past seven days' rainfall, no jedi mind trick is necessary. This is not the rainfall you are looking for. The drought will go about its business. Move along (to an area other than northeast Oklahoma), rain. Move along.
I once asked if Tulsa had rain repellant.
I will ask Tulsa National Weather Service meteorologists the scientific, statistical questions, of course, but sometimes, after watching the radar's rain bypass the Tulsa area one-too-many times, I just had to ask. Maybe it was because we were in a big city compared to the surrounding rural areas?
"There really isn't any correlation between cities and a lack of rainfall or vice versa," said weather service meteorologist Karen Hatfield. "It's more a factor of personal perception as anything."
Everyone from Tulsa to Arkansas in the Tulsa NWS' coverage area, rural and urban alike, thinks that storms are falling apart before they reach their own areas, Hatfield said.
But, perhaps we northeastern Oklahomans actually do have a reason to complain. Perhaps we northeastern Oklahomans really are the have-nots in this precipitation free for all that we've been seeing forecast lately. Why does
the western part of the state get more than 5 inches, when Tulsa receives about 1 inch?
And that leads directly into this week's state drought report, courtesy of the U.S. Drought Monitor and the Oklahoma Climatological Survey:
That subtle change you are probably squinting to notice is in Pawnee County. Let me make it more obvious with a gif image:
Why? Gary McManus, associate climatologist with OCS, said the lack of statewide changes is because liquid precipitation levels (aka what the snow melts into) were about a half-inch to an inch statewide. Not enough to make a dent in the drought classifications.
But Pawnee County's big drop? Here's McManus' take:
"Lone Chimney Lake in Pawnee County is the main potable water supply for 16,000 people in the surrounding area. Pawnee Rural Water District 2 officials say it's the lowest they've seen the lake in 32 years, and managers at the lake were worried the water supply would be gone by May 1."
While we may sometimes just be imagining the radar's rain avoiding our humble corner of the state, McManus also assures us via these maps that we are indeed the one area of the state that the rain is bypassing:
The impact of not having normal rainfall for months will be much more noticeable during the warmer months, McManus said. There is hope for change, however, if La Niña's effects fade, as Jerry noted in
yesterday blog entry here. -- Althea Peterson
PS: Track Tulsa's weather milestones of the year with the updated milestone listing on the right side of the blog. Find out when the last time Tulsa had freezing or triple-digit temperatures, significant snowfall or significant rainfall, as well as the coldest and hottest temperatures by day and month.
