For those city dwellers who don’t think much about the lack of rain, the anatomy of a drought in western Oklahoma might not mean much.
But pictures tell the story of the plight in the Panhandle and the northwest. The first one is of a supposed wheat field near Buffalo.
The second picture is of a wheat field near Forgan.
As State Climatologist Gary McManus of the Oklahoma Geological
Survey wrote in a Mesonet report this week, the pictures tell it all “and the tell is not good.”
Survey wrote in a Mesonet report this week, the pictures tell it all “and the tell is not good.”
He said it’s the same story all across western Oklahoma.
McManus said the statistics are worn out by now but the maps and pictures tell the story of the current drought which began in earnest in early October.
As the third picture shows, rainfall since Oct. 1, 2017 in the far reaches of the Panhandle totals .3 of an inch. Check the other end of the state where Broken Bow in McCurtain County has received 29 inches.
“The wheat crop is in bad shape, that’s not a shock. The USDA’s National Ag Statistics Service have 72% of OK wheat in “poor to very poor” condition, but at least there’s misery in numbers? Sorry Kansas and Texas,” wrote McManus.
And rain is not in the forecast for the next week.
