{"id":24857,"date":"2015-08-20T10:56:09","date_gmt":"2015-08-20T15:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=24857"},"modified":"2015-08-20T11:11:43","modified_gmt":"2015-08-20T16:11:43","slug":"godzilla-el-nino-has-oklahoma-farmers-excited-but-guarded","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2015\/08\/20\/godzilla-el-nino-has-oklahoma-farmers-excited-but-guarded\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Godzilla\u2019 El Ni\u00f1o has Oklahoma Farmers Excited But Guarded"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_24870\"  class=\"wp-caption module image center\" style=\"max-width: 620px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-24870\" alt=\"A scene from 1967's &quot;Son of Godzilla.&quot; \" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2015\/08\/godzilla-620x261.jpg\" width=\"620\" height=\"261\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2015\/08\/godzilla-620x261.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2015\/08\/godzilla-500x211.jpg 500w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2015\/08\/godzilla-150x63.jpg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2015\/08\/godzilla-300x126.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2015\/08\/godzilla.jpg 1437w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">TOHO\/SONY PICTURES<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">A scene from 1967&#39;s &quot;Son of Godzilla.&quot;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">This year\u2019s El Ni\u00f1o <a title=\"TimeLink\" href=\"http:\/\/time.com\/3996227\/el-nino-forecast\/\" target=\"_blank\">might be the strongest ever<\/a>. The phenomenon \u2014 marked by unusually warm waters in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of South America \u2014 means more precipitation could be on the way for Oklahoma. The state\u2019s wheat farmers are hopeful, but know too much rain at the wrong time can be ruinous.<\/p><p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/220109473&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=false\" height=\"150\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p><p><!--more-->Mike Rosen runs a grain elevator near Kingfisher. He says Oklahoma\u2019s wheat farmers can\u2019t seem to catch a break.<\/p><p>\u201cWe\u2019ve gone four years without moisture in the winter months, and it\u2019s been kind of tough,\u201d Rosen says. Then, when the drought finally broke it rained <i>too much<\/i>. \u201cWe had an average crop, but it was very poor quality because it rained so much during harvest. It just ruined the test weight and so forth.\u201d<\/p><p>[module align=&#8221;right&#8221; width=&#8221;half&#8221; type=&#8221;pull-quote&#8221;]<\/p><p>\u201cFor me it could be a bad deal. We\u2019re dual purpose in this area, cattle and wheat, and you get a real wet winter like that, and the cattle out there chomping on that wheat, it can adversely hurt your yields. It could be thinning it out.<\/p><p><b>&#8211; Michael Peters<\/b><\/p><p>[\/module]<\/p><p>Rosen and dozens of other wheat producers gather at Redlands Community College in El Reno, where State Climatologist Gary McManus updated farmers on what could<b> <\/b>be the strongest El Ni\u00f1o<i> <\/i>ever.<\/p><p>\u201cWe\u2019re going to call this the Godzilla El Ni\u00f1o,\u201d McManus tells the crowd<\/p><p>But there\u2019s no reason to panic. In fact, when this Godzilla El Ni\u00f1o was a baby, it <a title=\"StateImpactLink\" href=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2015\/06\/18\/drought-breaking-rain-proving-too-much-too-late-for-oklahoma-wheat-farmers\/\" target=\"_blank\">helped stomp out <\/a>the state\u2019s crippling drought. By mid-spring 2015, it looked like another disastrously dry summer was on the way.<\/p><p>\u201cIt didn\u2019t stop raining for three months,\u201d McManus told the farmers. \u201cIt rained and rained and rained.\u201d<\/p><p>Now, the equatorial waters of the eastern Pacific are getting even warmer, and could break records. Mike Halpert with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says this El Ni\u00f1o is shaping up to be as big as super El Ni\u00f1os of the past, and water temperatures could reach 3.6-degrees above normal.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_24864\"  class=\"wp-caption module image center\" style=\"max-width: 500px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-24864\" alt=\"Weekly averaged sea surface temperatures (top) and anomalies (bottom) for the past 12 weeks. \" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2015\/08\/gsstanim.gif\" width=\"500\" height=\"500\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2015\/08\/gsstanim.gif 500w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2015\/08\/gsstanim-150x150.gif 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2015\/08\/gsstanim-300x300.gif 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2015\/08\/gsstanim-32x32.gif 32w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2015\/08\/gsstanim-50x50.gif 50w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2015\/08\/gsstanim-64x64.gif 64w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2015\/08\/gsstanim-96x96.gif 96w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2015\/08\/gsstanim-128x128.gif 128w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2015\/08\/gsstanim-470x470.gif 470w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">NOAA\/National Weather Service<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Weekly averaged sea surface temperatures (top) and anomalies (bottom) for the past 12 weeks.<\/p>\n<\/div><p>That\u2019s \u201ca value that we\u2019ve only recorded three times in the last 65 years,\u201d Halpert said in a conference call with reporters: In periods from 1972-1973, 1982-1983 and 1997-1998.<\/p><p>The 2015 El Ni\u00f1o began much earlier than normal. Scientists aren\u2019t sure why it\u2019s so strong; research is ongoing and <a title=\"NatureLink\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/nclimate\/journal\/v4\/n2\/full\/nclimate2100.html\" target=\"_blank\">centers on climate change<\/a>. Regardless, El Ni\u00f1o is here, and Oklahoma\u2019s farmers are taking notice.<\/p><p>\u201cAt least the odds appear to be tilted more in our favor than they have been in quite some time going into the fall planting season,\u201d McManus told the crowd.<\/p><p>The forecast for the fall and winter is especially important for winter wheat, which is<b> <\/b>Oklahoma\u2019s No. 1 crop. McManus said data predict more storm systems from mid-fall through mid-spring.<b> <\/b><\/p><p>\u201cWe would expect wetter than normal conditions, and sometimes cooler than normal temperatures go along with that,\u201d he said.<\/p><p>The wetter-than-normal forecast had wheat farmers at the meeting cautiously excited. But each one sounds a note of caution as well, like Wheat Commission members and farmers Tom Stevens and Michael Peters.<\/p><p>[module align=&#8221;right&#8221; width=&#8221;half&#8221; type=&#8221;pull-quote&#8221;]<\/p><p>\u201cYou could have freeze-out \u2014 freeze damage on wheat. Out in the panhandle, where I\u2019m from, in Guymon, if we get real cold we like to have a snow cover, because it will protect that wheat from freeze-out.\u201d<\/p><p><b>-Tom Stephens<\/b><\/p><p>[\/module]<\/p><p>What Oklahoma wheat farmers really like is the idea of more moisture when their crop is young, says north-central farmer Raymond Parrish.<\/p><p>\u201cUsually it\u2019s a pretty good thing, because you usually have more moisture and more snowfall, which covers the wheat, which helps it go through winter a lot easier,\u201d he says. \u201cThe biggest deal is whether it starts raining in October and you can\u2019t get your wheat in.\u201d<\/p><p>But all El Ni\u00f1os are inherently unpredictable, and no one can say for certain what the oceanic phenomenon means for Oklahoma.<\/p><p>For example, the effects could stay too far south, in Mexico, which happened in the 1987 event. Or maybe, for once in several years, wheat farmers will get lucky.<\/p><p>\u201cIt\u2019s always a good thing to be a little bit wetter,\u201d Dewey County farmer Jimmy Emmons says. \u201cWe\u2019d hate for it to be extremely cold, but it\u2019s a good thing overall for us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The forecast for the fall and winter is especially important for Oklahoma\u2019s number one crop: winter wheat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":24870,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[491],"tags":[313,549,427,422],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24857"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24857"}],"version-history":[{"count":26,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24857\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24885,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24857\/revisions\/24885"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}