Opinion

July brought a near miraculous recovery to much of Oklahoma, which was faced with an intensifying drought headed into summer’s scorching middle stanza. Uncharacteristically wet conditions succeeded in beating the drought back to a more manageable level, however, especially across the hardest hit areas in northern and central Oklahoma. Drought covered as much as 51 percent of the state on July 7 according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. That coverage was reduced nearly in half by the end of July, however, eventually encompassing a little less than 26 percent of the state. The worst remaining conditions were across southwestern and west central Oklahoma where severe-to-extreme drought dominated the Drought Monitor map. The Drought Monitor’s intensity scale slides from moderate-severe-extreme-exceptional, with exceptional being the worst classification. Some of the heaviest rains were accompanied by severe weather. Two large areas of severe storms moved from north to south across the center and eastern sections of the state on the 11th, along with damaging winds of up to 80 mph. The storms left tens of thousands without power – for several days in some cases. Another round of storms on the 30th packed winds of over 90 mph and caused extensive tree and power line damage across southern Oklahoma. The Oklahoma Mesonet site at Fittstown recorded a wind gust of 90 mph that evening.