2017

Cool August Slows Cotton Maturity

Friday morning has arrived and so has another rainy August day in Oklahoma. All the rainy days this August has meant more cooler days. Those cooler August days have left cotton farmers wondering if they’ll have enough heat units to fully mature this year’s crop.

One of the ways to track a crop’s daily and accumulated heat units is with the Oklahoma Mesonet Degree-day Heat Unit Calculator. This tool allows you to enter a crop planting date and get a table of heat units for any Mesonet site. The table shows daily heat units from planting to the most current date and the accumulation of those heat units over the season.

IMG_9870 Continue reading →

Beaver 2017, Too Long Between Rains

Western Oklahoma’s latest rain was critical to the success of this year’s winter wheat and canola crops. It also brought much needed relief to fire fighters as it drenched areas where large, devastating fires occurred in early March. The rain came with storms on March 28-29, 2017.

rainrfc.48hr

If we just looked at rainfall totals, we’d be hard pressed to believe that 2017 is dealing with “dry” year conditions. That’s because rainfall totals since January 1st fail to tell the story of real-world conditions. One has to drill down and scrutinize rainfall totals under the microscope of daily rainfall events and amounts. And the Oklahoma Mesonet has just the tool to do that, the Mesonet Long-Term Averages Graph maker.  Continue reading →

Wind’s Weather Role in NW Oklahoma Complex Fires (part 3 of 3)

The stage was set. The players for a drama of tragic proportions assembled. Two leads waited their cue. Already on stage were fine dead fuels from previous growing seasons, low moisture in February, and super low humidities. The next player in the drama entered, high wind speeds. This article is part 3 of 3 articles exploring weather conditions that set the stage for the Northwest Oklahoma Complex Fires that broke out on Monday, March 6, 2017.

2017-03-16.1Mb.Fire wall behind field and farmer.Terena Burke Bridwell.Barby Ranch.The Oklahoman

(Photo: Terena Burke Bridwell/Barby Ranch Beaver County)

At 11:00 AM March 6th winds across Beaver County were out of the southwest. Wind speed at the Oklahoma Mesonet Beaver site was 37 miles per hour. Continue reading →

Relative Humidity’s Weather Role in NW Oklahoma Complex Fires (part 2 of 3)

As relative humidities drop, standing, dead plant stems dry out. Dense, dead, dry grasses were the primary fuel source for the devastating fires that flared up on March 6, 2017 in Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas. This article is part two of a three part series. It covers the relative humidity conditions in Oklahoma leading into this horrendous fire day.

AgBlog.Fire and dead grass.Kathy Larson and Joe Coffey.The Cayenne Room.Oregon (1)

March kicked off with relative humidities unusually low across Oklahoma. Continue reading →

February’s Weather Role in NW Oklahoma Complex Fires (part 1 of 3)

Intense, devastating fires flared up one week ago in Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas. This article is part one of a three part series. It covers the long-term conditions leading into this horrendous fire day. Part One covers weather factors in February that contributed to extremely dry conditions in Beaver, Harper, and Woodward Counties.

2017-03-07.NW OK Complex Fire.fire and truck line at night.Carmen Fire Dept 2

(Photo: Carmen Fire Department 3/7/17)

Continue reading →

January 2017 Weather Roundup

January was a month of surprises! We froze from some of the coldest temperatures we’ve seen since 2011, then ended the month basking in spring-like, warm weather.

For January, the departure from Oklahoma Mesonet‘s 15-year average air temperatures ranged from 5 degrees above average in the Northeast and Southeast to 1 degree below average at Kenton in the Panhandle. The majority of winter wheat and canola fields were in areas that came in at 1-2 degrees above average.

2017-02-02.Jan 2017 Avg Air Temp Continue reading →