Extreme drought in portions of Southern Great Plains - OK and TX

Here is a map of the January 31 2018 Fire Weather Outlook from the NWS Storm Prediction Center (Fire Weather). In creating this map from Google Earth for you, I downloaded a kmz file from the NWS Storm Prediction Center that I then imported into Google Earth to create this image. Note the elevated and critical fire weather for January 31st in portions of the Southern Great Plains including portions of Texas and Oklahoma. According to my friends at the National Weather Service Norman Oklahoma Weather Forecast Office, the fire weather forecast for the next five days (February 1 to 5, 2018) are for low fire weather concerns with the passage of a cold front. See the NWS Norman OK Facebook post of earlier today (January 31st) for more information.

The other day I wrote that the Oklahoma late winter 2018 wildfire season is underway. When I wrote that post I knew from my correspondence with my friend at the National Weather Service Norman Oklahoma Weather Forecast Office that portions of the Southern Great Plains, e.g. western Oklahoma and the panhandle of Texas, had not seen any rain in 100 plus days. Further there is this post from January 26th from the Facebook page of the National Weather Service Amarillo Texas Weather Forecast reporting that the precipitation measurements from the official observation site of the Amarillo WFO shows no measurable precipitation for 105 days.

Knowing that dry conditions contribute to wildfire danger, I wanted something more specific to give you on the dry conditions in portions of Oklahoma, Texas, and environs. Yesterday (January 30th)  I sent my friend at the NWS Norman OK WFO an e-mail asking for more information about the dry conditions in his forecast area. He did not disappoint, he put together this map on January 30th that he wants me to share with you. In describing the map, he said "this is the past 90 days, percent of normal precipitation, horrible." He went on to say "yes, some locales in western Oklahoma are 100+ days since last rainfall." The map below covers the forecast areas of the NWS Amarillo TX and Norman OK WFO and then some. Note that the areas in the map below that are colored grey have had no rainfall in the last 90 days.

Map dated January 30, 2018, past 90 day percent of normal precipitation, courtesy of NWS Norman OK WFO

I just had a chance to talk to my friends at the NWS Amarillo TX WFO this afternoon (January 31st), they are now up to 110 days with no measurable precipitation at their observation site (NWS Amarillo TX WFO) and they are well beyond the previous record set in 1957 of 75 days with no measurable precipitation. We talked a little more about the dry conditions in the Amarillo TX WFO forecast area. My friend said that "this extreme dry weather raises concerns of a potential active and devastating wildfire season." My friend at the NWS Norman WFO shares these concerns, saying that this may well be an active and prolonged wildfire season.

And here is the latest drought monitor map (dated January 23rd) from the United States Drought Monitor. Note the areas in red, "extreme drought," in the panhandle of Texas and western Oklahoma.

As I get more information on the wildfire season in the Southern Great Plains, including but not necessarily limited to Oklahoma and Texas, I'll share more here.

Note: The NWS Amarillo Texas WFO forecast area adjoins the NWS Norman OK WFO.