Oklahoma Climatologist Gary McManus is getting worried again, first, because the long-range forecasts don’t include snow for Christmas but more importantly, the lack of rain and the rapid increase in drought activity in the state.
He suggests there are better chances of drought coming back to the state than there are for snowfall on Christmas Eve.
In his Monday morning musings, McManus noted it has been 21 days since the last rainfall in Oklahoma, even though November set records for rainfall and tornadoes.
“It’s gotten so dry that even the 30-day maps, after easily the wettest November (remember November…no wait, we’ve done that already) on record, have started to show a deficit again,” he commented.
“All that means is I’ll have to active State Climatologist Drought Monitor mode again, after all that hard work ERASING drought, to start drawing it BACK in if we don’t get rain soon. One plus is at least it hasn’t been exceptionally warm the last couple of weeks, so that’s less pressure on that soil moisture. At least not warm like it was in November that fueled all that severe weather,” declared McManus.
