Southern Plains

Conditions for the week of Jan. 4-10

In Texas, precipitation was limited to the northern Panhandle (0.2-0.4 inches) along with some small trimming of abnormal dryness (D0), and to the extreme southeastern coast (0.2-0.6 inches). Meanwhile, short-term dryness and drought expanded in the northeast where it was dry this week. Central Oklahoma saw 0.1-0.3 inches of liquid equivalent precipitation in the form of snow (2-5 inches), but this wasn’t enough to deter additional deterioration as impacts reported by ranchers and farmers indicated ground-level conditions were worse than what the indices and products suggested. Reports from former state agriculture officials indicated that 60% of the farm ponds in Woodward, Harper, western Woods and Major, Ellis, and northern Roger Mills counties were dry, and that pastures and winter wheat crops were wiped out. It is possible that major relief from the 2010-15 drought was more concentrated from south-central through east-central Oklahoma, and that recent dryness, warmth, and windy conditions have exacerbated the impacts across northern and western Oklahoma. Nevertheless, the combination of short-term (out to 90 days) dryness and worse-than-expected ground-level impacts prompted an expansion of severe drought (D2) into north-central Oklahoma, and moderate drought (D1) in southwestern and northern Oklahoma and southeastern Kansas. 

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