Fire and Water

Rain is a good thing, and that's exactly what we need - rain! Fortunately it's on the way, but not until late Wednesday at the earliest. In the interim, warm, dry and windy conditions will prevail leading to a high risk for wildfires across eastern Oklahoma.

Recent drought monitors indicate that most of eastern Oklahoma is suffering from abnormally dry conditions, while portions of central Oklahoma are experiencing a moderate drought. However, the drought monitors don't paint the entire picture. The amount of rain over the last 30 days, as well as the temporal (time/frequency) aspect must be taken into consideration. Tulsa received 1.23'' of rain during the month of October with 0.98'' falling on one day, October 9, 2010. For the rest of the month, only 0.25'' was recorded at Tulsa; 22 days and only 0.25'' of rain. According to the Oklahoma Climatological Survey, northeast OK ranked as the 11th driest October since records began in 1921. The following first week of November in Tulsa was bone dry.

I could go on to dazzle you with statistics, records and data, but all anyone really needs to do is look outside! We've had numerous wildfires over the last few days, and conditions obviously aren't improving. With abnormally warm temperatures, lack of rain and strong south winds the risk for wildfires will only increase through Wednesday.