Miles from grass, miles from water, only six inches from hell

[pscot]

Hi there, Oklahoma. That was quote from a rancher describing the Oklahoma panhandle country in Tim Egan's book THE WORST HARD TIME. The book is a history of the dustbowl. It describes the settling of the area and the events preceding the economic collapse of high plains farming, followed by years of drouth and dust storms. It's a great read, about as lively as history can be, and it has raised all sorts of questions in my mind. I was hoping you all might be able to help me to some answers.

For one thing, Egan talks about temperatures above 110 degrees during the summers. I was wondering how that compares with what you've been experiencing lately. Are you seeing record highs? He also talks a lot about the Ogallala aquifer, which was out of reach of the pumping technology in use back then. I did a scan with google earth and found lots and lots of big circles on the earth that look like the mile long irrigation circles the Boeing company pioneered here in Washington so they could grow potatos in the scablands. You seem to be tapping the aquifer on a gran scale. Any idea how that big underground reservoir is holding up? I drove across Rt 66 back in the sixties and I remember miles and miles of rolling brown grasslands like ocean swells, but I don't recall any big irrigation circles. I really liked the country. It was kind of stark, but beautiful too.

I guess my curiosity really boils down to one big thing: are we setting ourselves up for a repeat of the terrible thirties? Any comments you'd care to make about those times or now would be much appreciated.

If you haven't read THE WORST HARD TIME, I recommend it highly. It's filled with some of the toughest, bravest people you'll ever meet. Egan treats the people with real sympathy. He was born in Montana and he's a westerner through and through. It's true history but it reads like a thriller. And I'm afraid it has some hard lessons for all of us, that we maybe should be paying attention to.

[Nicole]

1. Hi

We haven't broken any record temps, that I know of. We are in our 16th day of temps over 100° but 100° is not unusual for this time of year. Today's high was 103°, yesterday was 105°. I think the hottest day so far has been 109°.

Here's the rainfall stats for Southwest Oklahoma:
Rainfall this year: 12.21"
Rainfalldeparture from normal: -13.03"
Percentage of Normal recieved: 48%
Rank since 1921 (85 periods): 1st driest
Last record for driest year was: 12.82" (1970-71)

Here's something that you might find interesting:

July 2006 Far From Warmest For Oklahoma
July 25, 2006

Summer May Be Just Getting Started
By Gary McManus
Climatologist
The Oklahoma Climatological Survey
and
Howard Johnson
Assistant State Climatologist, Retired
7/25/2006

Oklahomans are undoubtedly convinced, global warming news reports in tow, that the recently completed July was one of the hottest the state has ever seen. "Close, but no cigar" might be an apt reply, but in all actuality, it really wasn't even close. The average temperature statewide, according to the Oklahoma Mesonet, did manage to tie 1914 and 1956 for the 14th warmest July on record at 83.9 degrees, but that pales in comparison to the drought-induced heat of previous years. Not even July 1980, the summer Oklahoma spent in an Easy Bake Oven, can top the July of 1954, when the statewide average temperature soared to 88.1 degrees. In fact, the top-10 warmest Julys are dominated by extreme drought years, including the Dust Bowl years of 1934 and 1936, in addition to the more recent drought episodes of 1998 and 2001, and the aforementioned 1980.

Oklahoma City's average temperature was 86.2 degrees, its 8th hottest July since 1891. Tulsa's 84.7 degrees would rank as the 26th warmest July since 1905 for that city.

Six different Julys have severely tested the upper limit of Oklahomans' endurance of the heat. During the July of 1901, temperatures exceeded 100 degrees somewhere in the state every day, reaching 110 degrees on 10 of those days. In 1934, the Weather Bureau office in Oklahoma City calculated a statewide average daily maximum temperature of 102.8 degrees. All summer crops failed during the brutal July of 1936. Every reporting station in the state recorded triple digit temperatures at some time during July 1954 with 99 of the 129 stations reporting temperatures of 110 degrees or higher. Thirty-seven heat-related fatalities were reported during July 1980 as temperatures reached 100 degrees or higher somewhere in the state every day. Seventy-nine of 174 reporting stations recorded no measurable precipitation during that month. In July 1998, a heat wave and developing drought led to 20 fatalities during the month. The economic loss to agriculture and related enterprises, as estimated by the state Department of Agriculture, exceeded 2 billion dollars.

The state's record high temperature (120 degrees) has been attained six times, three of those coming during July. The thermometer indicated 120 degrees at Altus on July 19, 1936, at Alva on July 18, 1936, and at Tishomingo on July 26, 1943.

The current year is still on track to finish as the state's warmest on record, with a January-July statewide average temperature of 62.8 degrees, 3.6 degrees above normal. July 2006 was also the state's 30th driest on record with a statewide average precipitation total of 1.76 inches, about an inch below normal.

http://www.mesonet.org/news/

So although we haven't yet broken the high temp record, or even a monthly record, we will probably break the record for the hottest yearly average. I don't know which is worse, the heat or the drought. I'm a gardener so the lack of water is my biggest concern right now. My water bill is higher than my electric bill. :(

[pscot]

4. Thanks Nicole

Good information. Twelve inches of rain doesn't seem like very much. Up here, if we don't get a foot of rain in November we start complaining about another dry year. Last winter it rained for forty straight days. Noah would have been hammering away on the Ark, but most of us never even broke out our umbrellas.

[Nicole]

5. You're welcome

A foot of rain in one month? Okies would be building arks for sure. :)

[karlrschneider]

7. We did break one record just last night according to Dick Faurot

the warmest overnight low ever for this date, it didn't drop below 86. Gonna be another stinker this afternoon, it's 103 over here by the lake right now.

[Nicole]

8. I hope that was the last one you break

I thought the sw part of the state was usually the hottest but not last night. We went down to 79° last night so we were cooler than you @ 86°.

Our high today was 106°. It's almost 9:00 p.m. & it is 100°.

They say tomorow will be hotter. :scared:

[karlrschneider]

9. My digital thermo on the deck (in the shade) hit 107.6 about 2 pm

today. I turned on the sprinkler for the doggies.

[AndyA]

2. It's been hot in Tulsa, but everything is still pretty green.

Northeastern Oklahoma, by the way, is very lush and green with lots of trees. Parts of South Tulsa are also very hilly, with beautiful views.

It's been hot this year, but nothing in comparison to the summer of 1980, which was one of the longest periods of 100+ degree days in recent history. I lived through that, and so far, it was worse than what we have had this year.

I heard that Oklahoma had more shoreline than the East Coast. There are a lot of lakes here.

Edit: Here are a few facts I found about Oklahoma:

Oklahoma is underlain by 23 major groundwater basins containing 320 million acre-feet of water in storage, though only one-half of that amount may be recoverable. Groundwater is the prevalent source of water in the western half of the state.

The state's largest groundwater basin, the Ogallala Aquifer in western Oklahoma, contains 86.6 million acre-feet of supply--enough to cover the entire state two feet deep.

Surface Water
Oklahoma has approximately 11,611 miles of shoreline, slightly less than the estimated combined general (nontidal) coastline of the Atlantic, Gulf, Pacific, and Arctic Coasts (12,383 miles).

Oklahoma has approximately 78,578 miles of rivers/streams (about three times the circumference of the Earth and one-third the distance to the moon.)

Sounds pretty wet here, actually...

[pscot]

3. If you could cover even half

of the state 2 feet deep you could start selling luxury condos along the shore. Thanks for the info. Good post.

[Nicole]

6. I love visiting NE Oklahoma

It's quite a change from SW Oklahoma.

Green Country vs. Great Plains Country is no contest, y'all win. :toast:

[AndyA]

11. I went to a state resort in SW Oklahoma a few years back. I can't remember

the name of it, but it was very nice. It sits on a lake, and has a very modern hotel and restaurant, very cool architecture. Some friends from out of state couldn't believe they were in Oklahoma.

Just found it - Quartz Mountain Resort. They have a website here: http://www.quartzmountainresort.com/. It was really beautiful.

[Joey Liberal]

10. The big problem has not been the heat, but

The lack of rain. And, the winters are becoming shorter, warmer and dryer.