Oklahoma Is Dry, and It’s Starting to Feel Uncomfortable

Oklahoma is dry. Like, walk outside and feel it in your sinuses dry.

While we've had a smidge of rain in the past week, it wasn't the January soaker most weather outlets painted it to be. Just enough here and there to knock the dust out of the air, dump a little hail, and make tornado headlines across the US.

As great as those few hours of rain were, it wasn't enough. You don’t need a drought monitor map to tell you that either. You can see it in the ponds and creeks anywhere you go in Oklahoma.

The main thing making all of this feel uneasy is the forecast looking ahead.

Dry, Dry, Dry

There’s no rain in the foreseeable future. No big systems stacking up. No weeklong stretches of rain... just sunshine, wind, and temperatures, which don’t do us any favors.

Burn bans are already popping up in parts of the state. Some counties are locking things down early, and honestly, it makes sense. This is the window where one careless spark turns into a long afternoon for volunteer fire departments and nervous landowners watching smoke on the horizon.

If you’ve lived here long enough, you know how fast that can happen.

Wildfire season shows up on any windy day when someone tosses a cigarette out the window going down the road... Next thing you know, you’re refreshing Facebook for updates and hoping it doesn’t swing your way.

What makes this stretch feel different is how early it’s all lining up. Dry ground. Dormant grass. Wind that never really seems to quit. When winter moisture doesn’t show up, the lead-up to spring becomes a guessing game.

It's becoming obvious in town too. Walk around the backyard, the lawn crunches under your boots more than normal, and the dust makes for awful and pretty sunsets.

The Tinderbox

None of this is worth panicking over yet, but it's slowly getting there.

This is the part of the year we're all expected to use our common sense. Hold off on burning that brush pile. Double-check the trailer chains. Keep a can in the car for smokes. Opt for gas instead of charcoal... That kind of stuff.

Meanwhile, we'll all hope for rain soon.