The people who make a living watching the weather admit it—they’re not sure if the storm system churning out in the Pacific south of Alaska will bring snow or rain to Oklahoma in the coming days.
But you know that energy workers in northern and western Oklahoma are waiting to learn what their working conditions will be like next week. It makes a difference if you’re climbing a power pole, a wind turbine or a drilling rig.
As Gary McManus, Climatologist for the Oklahoma Mesonet put it in Thursday’s Mesonet Ticker, “All we can do is watch the model output and wait for the different scenarios to come into some sort of agreement with each other. And then we can do it all over again when the storm comes ashore. And then we can do it all over again when it crosses the Rockies!”
He’s right of course and also admits that some weather forecast models have Oklahoma getting no precipitation of any kind—snow or rain or freezing rain.
McManus says one thing is clear—western Oklahoma needs some moisture as 36.10% of the state is in abnormally dry conditions, up slightly from last week and much higher than the 5.15% at the start of 2019.
Almost 4%, those areas in the far western areas of the Panhandle are in a severe drought. As McManus put it, “Right now, the Grinch is steering the jet stream, however.”
“Now we do need that moisture, pretty desperately in the Panhandle and southwest. And it’s now been close to 50 days since they’ve had substantial moisture across north central Oklahoma. The deficits from 30 to 60 days out are starting to mount.”