Our county is showing in the abnormally dry category, but we are still at 0.6 at both 2 inches and 10 inches, so although it is drier than normal, it is still not bad. TV news said we got 3 1/2 inches of snow, so that will add a little moisture.

Carol,

Y'all are in pretty good shape all things considered.

We were in the abnormally dry category recently and for quite some time, even though our soil moisture levels were around 0.6 to 0.8. Right now our Mesonet's moisture probe/sensor thingie is out of commission, but I expect we're at 0.9 to 1.0 at all levels.

I know that at our house we've had nothing but mud, mud, mud, mud, mud ever since the 3" of snow/rain/sleet fell about 2 weeks ago. I love the moisture and can tolerate the mud.

It bothers me to see parts of central OK at 0.1. We've been there before and it is not pretty. Even more scarey is that it often takes a flood to end a drought, and I wouldn't wish a flood on anyone.

Dawn

I hope we get some warm days before the Spring rain starts, because I want to move some trellis and cattle panels and things around a little before planting time. Each year I get it a little closer to what I want in the garden, but my yard is still the pits.

Let's face it, my yard is never going to look good, and many of my neighbors have the same problem. We just have too many things to store in the yard; i.e. fishing boat, sailboat, 2 jet skiis, 3 vehicles, and a couple of trailers. Looks like a junk yard. I need hedges that hide everything, or one huge building.

We've kinda been expecting this, and it is one of those times when I was hoping for the best and planning for the worst. As I recall, I ordered a few tomatos that do better in dry heat than humid, and I hope that's true. We can only wait and see.

Susan

Susan,

We have been expecting it and it isn't a surprise. After all, we watched "below average" rainfall plague much of the state in most every month last year (except for the occasional flash flood rainfall kind of day) and we knew below average rainfall is always a likely prospect in a La Nina year.

The real question that impacts all of us is when the La Nina pattern will break. Most projections carry the moderate La Nina into March. Beyond March, it is hard to know what to expect.

The worst droughts we have had here in Love County were followed by a heavy rainfall year.

The 2003 drought was followed by a rainy 2004.

The horrific 2005-2006 drought was followed by the very rainy year of 2007 when we had a lot of flooding, especially in May and June.

Who knows if the drought year of 2010 will be followed by a heavy rainfall year in 2011, or if we'll be saying sometime in the future that the horrible drought years of 2010-2011 were followed by a flooding year in 2012?

I just hate to see the ever-widening and ever-deepening drought continuing to get worse. People in the worst areas may have a hard time getting seeds to sprout because it may be hard to keep the soil moist enough. Extremely dry soil soaks up moisture like a sponge.

We need for a lot of precip to fall in central OK, and it would be so much better if it fell in the form of rainfall and not ice or snow. Unfortunately, for most portions of Oklahoma the Seasonal Drought Outlook (linked below) shows the drought continuing. The outlook shows a mixed bag, where the drought is forecast to ease slightly in some areas while staying about the same or worsening in others, When I went and found the outlook so I could link it here, I was hoping it was going to show better prospects for improvement.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Seasonal Drought Outlook

Ugh.....it looks like we are the area where, "drought (is likely) to persist and intensify". I was trying to remember if the rainy 2007 summer was immediately preceded by drought or not, but for the life of me.....I can't.

Yes, after an extended drought, it is extremely hard to get the soil wet. Water just tends to run off, and I usually have to get down and dirty, meaning you'll find me on the ground literally mixing the soil with the water to make sure I am getting it wet enough.

Thanks for the map links, Dawn, it is very informative, despite not wanting to see it in reality. Denial is such a comforting thing sometimes.

Susan

Dawn....... Thanks for the map. It told me what my post hole digger already has told me. The ground is hard as a rock where I live. I havent kept records but I DON'T THINK i have had over an inch and a half of rain in 4 or 5 months. I've got 100 pine trees coming from the state in march and I'm hoping for a good rain before then to soften up the ground.I put about a ft. of leaves on my garden back in November and tilled them in and there has been so little moisture in the ground they havent even began to decompose. it's getting scary.

Susan,

Yes, the very rainy year 2007 was preceeded in most of the state by persistent drought that began in 2005. You might remember the winter wildfire season of 2005-2006 because large wildfires ran rampant across much of the state, beginning down in southern OK in late Oct. 2005 and I believe they really began in central OK around the end of December. Some parts of the state had a brief reprieve in early spring in 2006 (I know in my county we did) but then the drought returned in summer/fall and real drought relief didn't arrive until 2007. Then, we had flooding all over everywhere.

The 2008-09 dry spell was more of a southern OK thing, and maybe a western OK thing esp. in 2008, but eventually became more of an issue during the dormant winter vegetation season, resulting in April '09s massive wildfire outbreak that affected most parts of the state. In late April or early May 09 most of us began receiving lots of rainfall so it was a good year. The, as I am sure everyone remembers, 2010 was an odd mixed bag of every kind of difficult weather you can imagine.

It makes you wonder what in the world 2011 has in store for us.

Telow, You're welcome. I try to post it every week because knowing what conditions persist help in garden planning.

If you'll tell me what county you live in (and you certainly don't "have to" if you'd rather remain anonymous), I'll tell you what your official rainfall has been in recent months.

If you're somewhere within the large swath of central or eastern OK that have been exceptionally dry, it is almost beyond scarey. When you get so dry that your leaves aren't decomposing, that's far too dry. However, they'll break down a little slower in cool weather because heat makes them break down faster.

During the droughts of 2003 and 2005/2006, we were so dry in Love County that underground tree roots burnt during wildfires and would smoulder underground for days. There was so little moisture that when the grassfires and brushfires burnt through an area, all the compost and organic matter in the soil would burn. It was horrendous.

I hope you get some good rain between now and the time the trees arrive. Very young trees are very vulnerable to drought, so I hope yours will be planted in an area where you can run a soaker hose to them or something similar in the event the rains don't come.

Dawn

Dawn, maybe we could think about a post on which vegetables do best in a drought year, and which ones it might be best to steer clear of. We've already discussed tomatos and which ones we probably should avoid this year, but those that do best in a drought situation, after being established, we have yet to toss about. It may have a small mitigating effect if we don't get the extreme heat along with drought, but I can't foresee that happening in Oklahoma. Maybe we should just plant for spring/cool season crops and a fall crop when we may get lucky and have more moisture available, and forget what falls in between? Or maybe it should be the other way around?

Susan

Oh no:-( I am sad to see drought map. It looks like digging hard rock soil for new beds going to be most toughest job... Yesterday's precipitation didn't help either, its was very negligible. I did not water last spring planted roses, four season garden, fall planted berries. I hope they still live.

Susan,

It depends on when your drought occurs, but drought can have a fairly low impact in winter and spring.

It is pretty easy (although easy is a relative term) to grow cool-season crops in drought conditions because the cooler temps and somewhat higher humidities (unless you're in exceptional drought which keeps humidity very low) aren't working against you in Jan.-May like the higher temps and lower rainfall/humidity will be in the hotter months that follow. So, in that case, you go ahead and grow all the cool-season crops you want, as well as any warm-season types that are routinely planted in April. All those have a chance to grow before too much heat and too much drought takes a toll on them.

It is the "follow-on" succession crops or hot-season crops that may suffer in a drought year because they are being planted and getting started in much tougher conditions. However, some of the hot-season crops are very drought- and heat-tolerant, with southern peas, okra and sweet potatoes being some that tolerate drought and heat better than others. That doesn't mean they'll survive on no rainfall, but they can get by on relatively little irrigation.

About the only concession I make to drought conditions that are ongoing at planting time is to push the limits to plant as early as I reasonably can in order to get the plants off to a good early start and, hopefully, good early production.

There are not a lot of crops I won't plant in a drought year. Maybe not large-fruited pumpkins or winter squash because they need lots of water. Seminole is one that does fine on lower water, though, and I plant it pretty much every year anyway.

With melons, I only plant small-fruited ones anyway because the varieties that produce large melons use more water and I never have enough water here. Even in "wet" years, I almost always have to irrigate heavily in July and August no matter what.

So, the only difference in planting for drought or planting for normal times is that I tend to grow more short-season types and fewer long-season types, and I either don't plant succession crops, or I plant them knowing that a month or six weeks down the road, I may have to turn off the hose and let them sink or swin on their own with no irrigation. For example, if I feel drought is very likely where I live, I'll plant more bush beans that mature early and fewer pole beans that mature late. I'll plant more southern peas and fewer beans in general. I don't really give up much of anything that we like, but just grow it anyway and know we'll have lower yields. I also know my best chance of higher yields is in the spring and not in summer/fall.

Honestly, as frustrating as drought is, it rarely affects container gardeners because it is easy to irrigate containers and not so easy to irrigate in-ground crops where the moisture can wick out into the surrounding hyper-dry soil. That's why I have so many containers---because in dry years, I can let the garden go and still have the container plantings. Also, container plantings can be moved into shade or partial shade to help reduce the amount of afternoon sunlight/heat they must endure. With an inground garden, the poor plants sit there and roast unless you erect shade cloth over them and, unless you already have shade cloth on hand, the cost of shade cloth likely is much more than the value of the crop you'd get with the use of shade cloth.

I do miss the succession crops in late summer and fall in a drought year, but I just try to grow enough in the spring to make up for it.

In fact, I really like drought years in some ways because the lack of water means melons and tomatoes have absolutely superb flavor (unless a gardener overcompensates by overwatering), and my garden has almost no disease issues period in a drought year. Also, in hot years, the hot peppers are hotter in flavor. We tend to think that drought is all bad, but in some ways it is good.

Dawn

Dawn, I live 4 miles n. of Ok. county in Logan country. I don't mind anyone knowing where I live except a Ted Bundy. My only problem is I have no computer savvy (type with 1 or 2 fingers) and don't know how to post pic's or other websites. My daughter(who teaches me) is going to have a baby in about 3 weeks and she's busy making her nest so it might be months before she can spare me some time. I'll get there eventually. Thanks for offering to post the Logan county rainfall amounts.

High and Dry in Mwc...

Keith

Telow,

You have two Oklahoma Mesonet stations in Logan County, so I'll list last year's data for both and you can see which city is closer to you. Your rainfall won't always be exactly the same as the rainfall recorded at the Mesonet station, but at least you'll have some idea. I compare my rainfall to my county's Mesonet station's rainfall and find that even though my rainfall is sometimes higher than the station and sometimes lower, it generally averages out in the end.

Your county, Logan, is like mine (Love) in one very important way. It is sort of transitional county in the middle of the state, so the eastern part of Logan County averages a little more rain annually (39") than the western part of Logan County (33").

For 2010, neither of your county's Mesonet stations even came close to recording either 33" or 39". Here's your data:

GUTHRIE
Mesonet Station (located 4 miles west/northwest of Guthrie)

2010 RAINFALL
Jan 0.45"
Feb 2.54"
Mar 1.21"
Apr 3.10"
May 4.90"
Jun 6.18"
Jul 1.67"
Aug 1.05"
Sep 2.33"
Oct 1.53"
Nov 1.44"
Dec 0.18"

2010 TOTAL FOR GUTHRIE: 26.63"

MARSHALL

Jan 0.37"
Feb 3.07"
Mar 1.47"
Apr 3.22"
May 5.24"
Jun 5.68"
Jul 4.45"
Aug 1.71"
Sep 1.92"
Oct 1.28"
Nov 2.26"
Dec 0.26"

2010 TOTAL FOR MARSHALL: 25.93"

So, in 2010, it didn't matter where you were...you had a drought.

I've linked the Logan County page from the Oklahoma Climatologcal Survey below for you. Click on the link to read about the average climate data for your county.

When you daughter has time once again to sit down with you at the computer, tell her you'd like to learn how to use the Oklahoma Mesonet website to look at weather data and charts. It should be be easy for her to Google and find the OK Mesonet, but if she has trouble, let me know and I'll help her. Once you know how to navigate the OK Mesonet website, there's so much data available there that it boggles the mind.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Logan County Data from OCS

Thanks Dawn. Where do you find the time?

Telow,

In the winter, I have oodles of time because I can't play outside in the dirt as much as I'd like. I spend a lot of time in the winter watching the weather, especially mindful to keep an eye on drought conditions and soil moisture levels. By tracking my soil moisture levels via the OK Mesonet, I know how much I'll have to water or not water when planting time comes.

Also, as Carol often says, I never sleep. : )

There's a good drought article on the website of The Oklahoman today, so I've linked it below.

The most shocking part of the article to me is the statement that in the OKC area, data for the past 90 days ranks as the 4th worst drought period since 1921 for that particular 90-day period.

Y'all, please remember that with drought you often will see more wildfires and brushfires, especially with lots of dormant winter vegetation. That's one "side effect" of drought that we often don't think about.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Drought Article from The Oklahoman

What I don't understand is why we've had so many cloudy days for the last 3 months at least with almost no precip. (Got 2&1/2" of snow Thursday a.m. so that's what 25/100ths of an inch?) It's not terribly dry here. The post holes DH dug for the greenhouse had damp---not wet, but not dry--soil all the way to the bottom of a 2 foot hole. So we're not hurting for lack of moisture as much as from lack of sun. I am SICK of clouds. What good is it going to do us to have a greenhouse if the sun won't shine?

Dawn, thanks for the link to the Oklahoman. Yesterday I did something that I would never do during the gardening season and that is put a sprinkler in the garden and watered for 3 hours. I know many here have large gardens and watering would be impractical but with my 900 sq. fr. it isn't. I haven't tilled yet so the whole garden is still covered with mulch except for where the Little Heeler runs between the two rows of tomatoes. I plan on a good soaking every couple of weeks until we get a measurable rain. When I was at Chesapeake Energy for 5 years, I enjoyed looking at the black and white photos in the Administration building showing the huge black clouds of dust and the devastation during the Dust Bowl years. Very scary...

High and Dry in Mwc

Keith

Dorothy,

From watching how the jetstream, I think it has persistently come close enough to your end of Oklahoma that you get the gray, gloomy clouds on the edge of the cold fronts that are dropping snow and ice north of you. Way down here in southern OK we've had more sun than last year, but in the last week or so, the sun has become increasingly rare.

Keith,

You're welcome. I'm getting pretty concerned about y'all up there in central OK. This is the driest I remember seeing your part of the state in winter in several years.

I understand exactly what you did and why. I'd probably do exactly the same thing if I was a dry as you are. When my soil gets so dry in drought periods that rainfall or sprinkler irrigation rolls downhill on the surface of the ground and isn't even absorbed, I know I've waited too late to start watering. I think it is always better, even (maybe especially) in winter to water the dry ground. If it gets too, too dry and planting time is approaching, it can be hard to keep the soil moist enough for seeds to sprout.

The big mistake I made in one dry spring (may have been 2003 or 2005) is that I planted and watered sparingly waiting for rain to fall to give the seeds and plants more water. Well, rain never fell and by the time I realized that I should have been watering more heavily to get them off to a good start, the were pretty stunted and pathetic. It was a hard lesson to learn, but it made me a better gardener in succeeding dry years.

Don't even mention those photos of those big old black clouds. They are fascinating but in a horrifying and very scarey type of way. I hope and pray we've learned enough about conservation and no-till commercial farming that we never put ourselves in that predicament again. Can you imagine the mass hysteria, especially on the part of the media with its 24-hour-news-cycle nowadays if we had something like that occurring?

If you haven't read the book about the Dust Bowl days that I've linked below, I highly recommend it. I reread it once every 2 or 3 years to remind myself of how bad it was and what all those folks went through. We throw the word "diaster" and "catastophe" around pretty loosely nowadays, but those people who endured the Dust Bowl years really lived through a catastrophe and it lasted for years.

Some of the old-timers here have told me stories about what it was like here in our county, and it wasn't pretty. One of them lived on land adjacent to ours and she tried to explain what it was like to have the big clouds of dust ruin the laundry you'd just washed, or blow through the cracks in walls, etc. into the house and cover everything with a fine layer of dust. She was a very small child then so I'm not sure how much she remembers directly and how much she remembers from hearing her folks talk about it later on their lives. I just can't imagine what it was like to endure 8 long years of catastrophe.

My dad did tell me about the pure agony of watching crops fail over and over, which was a disaster for folks who essentially raised all their own food. So, if couldn't grow a crop, you couldn't eat. One thing that sticks in my memory from photos of those days is just how painfully thin everybody was.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: The Worst Hard Time

From Google Images

Keith

Dawn, I've been wanting that book for so long. I even put it in my cart yesterday with the gardening books but ended up removing it as I just couldn't justify another few bucks out of the budget this month. *sniffle*

I love history and have had a special fascination with the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression since I was a kid. I guess I listened to too many stories from the "old folk" back then and it planted a bug in my brain.

Diane

Keith,

Now see, that's the kind of photo that is just terrifying. Can you imagine having that bearing down on you, your home, your family and your crops? I would think it must have been terrifying. One thing that doesn't get enough attention is how many people (and so many, many, many more animals) died of dust inhalation/dust pneumonia during that time.

Diane, It is just the best book. I love reading it and rereading it. Of course, back then, it was just such a struggle to survive if you lived in the Great Plains but one thing I learned from the book that I didn't realize before is that some of those dust clouds rolled all the way to the East Coast, so there was some impact there too. Who knew? I don't remember them mentioning that when we studied the Dust Bowl.

I love listening to the old-timers too. All my family's real old-timers are gone now on my dad's side of the family, but we still have a few "oldies but goodies" living around us here in our neighborhood and I love hearing their tales.

One of them told me of coming to Oklahoma with his family in a covered wagon when he was about 3 years old. He also remembered his uncle living in a dugout dug into the bank of the Red River not too far from where I now live. He told me that when he was a boy, there were no trees on the prairie lands of Love County (including the property we now live on, which now is mostly heavily forested), so they had to take a wagon pulled by a team of horses or oxen down to the river to cut and haul back enough wood to get them through the winter. Just imagine that? To be able to talk to people who remember the early history of our area is just amazing. We are losing them now one by one and it makes me so sad because once they all are gone, there won't be anyone left to tell us the stories of the old days. The gentleman who told me many of those stories I just mentioned passed away a few years ago at the age of about 97 and just a few weeks ago his "baby brother" passed away at about the same age. I'm so glad I had a chance to meet them, get to know them, hear their stories, and learn some of the local history from the folks who lived it.

Dawn

My grandparents lived here in Adair Co through Dust Bowl Days. Grampa said they survived on cornbread and beans, buttermilk (real buttermilk; they sold the butter) and good old turnip greens. If it hadn't been free range, they wouldn't have had the buttermilk because they took the cows off their property to a stream that continued to flow for water and forage.

People away from the area had no idea how bad it was. Grampa told of a relief agency up north sending down bags of potatoes and they were given some which they really appreciated. In the sack was a note with a woman's address asking that if a family "who really needs them" got the potatoes that they would write and let her know. Grampa said he would have been glad to if she had thought to put in a stamped and addressed envelope, but since he had neither and no money to buy them, he wasn't able to.