Oklahoma’s current drought is bad, but residents lived through worse, climatologist says

OKLAHOMA CITY – While nearly the entire state is in a drought, the state climatologist doesn’t expect it to break many records.

“It is not even as bad as the one we had in the fall of 2022,” said Gary McManus, state climatologist. “We’ve had many bad droughts. This is just the latest of those bad droughts.”

About 52% of the state falls into the extreme or exceptional drought category, which are the two most severe or intense categories on the U.S. Drought Monitor, he said.

“There’s just a little tiny area in Texas County and northern Texas County that’s out of drought,” he said.

In the last 60 days, Oklahoma has received 32% of its normal rainfall amounts, McManus said.

In the last 60 days, the state has missed out on 4.3 trillion gallons of rainfall, he said.

About 60 of Oklahoma’s 77 counties are under a burn ban, he said.

The drought has hurt the agricultural industry, particularly the wheat, cotton and corn crops and the cattle producers, he said.

“Cattle ranchers are early weaning, selling the cattle, hauling water and feeding supplemental feed,” he said. “They’ve been doing that for months, especially across western Oklahoma.

“Ponds are going dry, or they are getting so low they’re brackish and worthless for water for the livestock.”

In a few days, the state is expecting to experience a cold front that will bring temperatures down to around normal levels in the 80s with a chance of rain in some areas, he said.

“It’s not going to be get out our hoodies and break out the pumpkin spice just yet,” McManus said.

According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, Oklahoma has seen temperatures this week five to 15 degrees above normal.

“Like I said, it’s not the worst drought of record, but it is nothing to sneeze at either,” McManus said.