About Albert Sutherland

Are We at Fall Yet?

So when does fall begin? From a farming, ranching, gardening standpoint, it’s when air temperatures drop into mild ranges and water demand tapers off. It’s when plants respond with their fall flush of growth. Animals respond by playing more. Livestock gain more. And the kids quit asking if we’re there yet!

If we just consider minimum air temperature as a season mark, we could turn to a long-term averages graph for our dates. This graph from Minco, in central Oklahoma, has two orange lines that highlight the average dates when the minimum air temperature crosses 60 degrees F. We could use these to mark the beginning of summer and the beginning of fall.

2014 09 09.Minco Air Temp.Long-term graph

[Full site: mesonet.org / weather / past data & files / long-term averages - graphs]

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Reporting Rainfall

The offense moves first, seeking to confuse, elude, to cut through the defense. If the defense plans well and plays well, each player is in position to stop the one with the ball. Now the outcome hinges on the basics. All of the planning, practice comes down to executing tackling basics.

Collecting rainfall is basic to monitoring weather. Measuring it accurately is like making that open field tackle. Correct rainfall amounts are valuable data for weather records, for climate records. Done wrong, bad data leads to wrong decisions. Done sloppily, it misleads.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

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Rainfall Graph as Risk Management Tool

What value does a graph line represent? How can a graph of weather data be a risk management tool? Will comparing rainfall to good and bad years help you make better crop decisions?

The difference in Mesonet rainfall graph lines between 2012 and 2014 represented more than a 100 million bushel wheat crop loss for Oklahoma’s farmers. With the wheat price close to $6 a bushel as this article was being written, that’s $600 million dollars in lost grain production by Oklahoma wheat farmers between a good year and a bad year.

The graph of cumulative rainfall for Freedom for 2012, green line, and 2014, red line, shows the dramatic difference in spring rainfall between these years. The blue fill area is the 15-year average rainfall. The Oklahoma hard red winter wheat crop in 2012 came in at 155 million bushels. In 2014, it was a disasterous 51 million bushels of wheat.

2014 08 14.Freedom.Rainfall.2014.2012.graph

[Full site: mesonet.org / Weather / Past Data & Files / LongTerm Averages - Graphs / Freedom / Rainfall]

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Heat and Cattle Comfort

With the shrill sound of cicadas pulsing around me, I began my walk along the path through the trees. Here it was Friday night in Ardmore. The day to follow was a full day devoted to beef cattle production at the 2014 Southern Plains Beef Symposium. This was a beautiful evening. It was hot and humid, yet it was a pleasant warmth. The grass was green and soils moist from recent rains.

As I walked, the sweat began to flow. Two miles and forty minutes later, I was warm, wet from perspiration, yet not fatigued, not overcome by the heat. At the end of my walk, close to 8:00 pm, the human Heat Index also referred to as the Apparent Temperature from the Newport Mesonet site was 87°F. That’s important because while I was sweating, I was still comfortable. Warm, yet far from being overcome by the heat. For me, when the Apparent Temperature gets into the upper 90s, I have to slow down and take it easy or suffer from the heat.

2014 08 10.Newport Air Temp graph

[Full Site: mesonet.org / Weather / Station Meteograms]
[App: Local / upper left corner "zig-zag" icon]

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Ken Crawford, Man of Vision

“Hi Ken, great to see you again. Take a look at what we’ve been working on. We’re really excited about it! Do you have a moment?”

2010.03.02.Ken Crawford.Hanyangian.com

That was often the start of our recent visits with Ken Crawford, past Oklahoma State Climatologist and Oklahoma Climatological Survey Director. Just two of the titles Ken has been known by in his career. Along with director of the climate survey, Ken was also a University of Oklahoma School of Meteorology faculty giving him the opportunity he loved, to teach and guide students.

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Historical Climate Trends Tool

Right in the middle of your conversation about how drought has cut hay production someone brings up climate. What pops into your mind? Do you have a picture of climate?

Drought is easy to picture. The empty ponds, low lakes, dried up crops are ready reminders of drought’s devastating impact. Weather is easy to picture. It’s what’s going on as soon as we step outside. Sun, wind, rain, heat, cold all give us an immediate picture in our mind. Pictures of climate? For most of us, it’s hard to picture climate. And if we can’t picture it, how can we get a grasp on the long-term cycles and patterns of climate? How can we know where in the cycle we are? How can we know what to expect?

One way to picture climate is with a graph over time. There is a tool that can be used to create graphs of climate for any of the 48 continental USA states or any of the 344 climate divisions. These graphs use data from NOAA’s National Climate Data Center back to 1895.

The tool is the Historical Climate Trends Tool made available through the Southern Climate Impacts Planning Program at www.southernclimate.org.

2014 07 19.SCIPP.Data Products page

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