Recent Rain Beneficial, But More Needed to End Drought

Some areas of the state have seen up to four inches of rain over the last five days. The long, steady rainfall was very beneficial, agriculture experts and meteorologists said.  Those conditions allowed the moisture to sock in well.

"As far as the overall drought, this rainfall may have helped improve a category of drought classification." Kevin Brown, the senior forecaster at the National Weather Service in Norman, said.

The rain came at a good time for wheat and fall annual pasture grasses.  It should help farmers start those crops.

But, experts say Oklahoma will need more rain, falling more often to sustain the benefits.

"We do have some decent top solid moisture that's beginning to develop, but what we lack is the sub-moisture, down deep. That's one thing that we don't have in place yet," said Heath Herje, the Agriculture Educator for the OSU Extension in Cleveland County.  "We need some substantial rainfall to get down deep in that soil profile."

The National Weather Service predicts the fall and winter will be wet.  Right now, forecasters say an El Nino pattern is shaping up, meaning a mild and normal to above-normal amount of precipitation.  But, Brown says it will take even more than that to recover from the drought.

"For the whole state to really benefit and get us out of a drought we would need somewhere in the range of seven to ten inches of moisture," he said. "That's probably not going to happen especially over a short period duration."

The metro is still about four inches below normal precipitation for the year. 
Recent Rain Beneficial, But More Needed to End Drought

Posted: Monday, October 1 2012, 09:44 PM CDT