{"id":27823,"date":"2017-01-12T11:48:13","date_gmt":"2017-01-12T17:48:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=27823"},"modified":"2017-01-12T11:48:13","modified_gmt":"2017-01-12T17:48:13","slug":"drought-creeps-back-into-oklahoma-as-dry-fall-leads-to-waterless-winter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2017\/01\/12\/drought-creeps-back-into-oklahoma-as-dry-fall-leads-to-waterless-winter\/","title":{"rendered":"Drought Creeps Back Into Oklahoma As Dry Fall Leads to Waterless Winter"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_27826\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 620px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-27826\" alt=\"Atoka Lake in southeast Oklahoma is in the middle of the state's most drought affected area. \" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2017\/01\/PHOTO-1-12-Pic1.jpg\" width=\"620\" height=\"413\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2017\/01\/PHOTO-1-12-Pic1.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2017\/01\/PHOTO-1-12-Pic1-500x333.jpg 500w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2017\/01\/PHOTO-1-12-Pic1-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2017\/01\/PHOTO-1-12-Pic1-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Logan Layden \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Atoka Lake in southeast Oklahoma is in the middle of the state&#39;s most drought affected area.<\/p>\n<\/div><p>Drought is back in Oklahoma. More than half the state now falls in the extreme drought category, and normally water-rich southeast Oklahoma is bearing the brunt of a very dry fall and winter.<\/p><p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/302373487&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--><\/p><p>Tree stumps poke above Atoka Lake\u2019s surface, and it\u2019s easy to see where the water line used to reach. In early 2016, lake levels were high. But now, Atoka is in the bullseye of the worst of Oklahoma\u2019s current drought. Atoka Emergency Manager Derrick Mixon says last week\u2019s snowstorm didn\u2019t help much.<\/p><p>\u201cAll that liquid just soaked in right quick. It\u2019s not \u2014 it didn\u2019t really help us,\u201d Mixon says.<\/p><p>Mixon says the current drought puts his city in an unfamiliar spot. If it continues, city officials might need to ration water.<\/p><p>\u201cWe haven\u2019t had any water rationing at all since I\u2019ve been \u2014 that I even remember. We\u2019ve always had plenty of water,\u201d Mixon says. \u201cOf course we\u2019ve been in droughts before and hopefully this weekend we\u2019ll bust out of it. They\u2019re saying possible flooding this weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>Stressed trees, receding reservoirs<\/h3><p>State Climatologist Gary McManus says Atoka Lake isn\u2019t the only reservoir affected by extreme drought.<\/p><p>\u201cYou have McGee Creek down in Atoka County, it\u2019s 14 feet below normal. Broken Bow in McCurtain County is 10 feet below normal. Lake Hugo itself is only minus three below the normal level, but those are significant deficits for those reservoirs,\u201d McManus says.<\/p><p>Low lake levels are only one example of the drought\u2019s impact in southeast Oklahoma. McManus says wildfires are on the rise and trees are dying.<\/p><p>\u201cThe trees down in that area are susceptible to drought, and to be quite honest a lot of those trees are still distressed from the 2010-15 drought,\u201d McManus says. \u201cSo putting more stress on them now just adds to their danger.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_27827\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 620px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-27827\" alt=\"Atoka Emergency Manager Derrick Mixon. \" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2017\/01\/PHOTO-1-12-Pic2.jpg\" width=\"620\" height=\"413\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2017\/01\/PHOTO-1-12-Pic2.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2017\/01\/PHOTO-1-12-Pic2-500x333.jpg 500w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2017\/01\/PHOTO-1-12-Pic2-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2017\/01\/PHOTO-1-12-Pic2-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Logan Layden \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Atoka Emergency Manager Derrick Mixon.<\/p>\n<\/div><p>Something else to consider: Oklahoma City pipes water from Atoka Lake to meet the thirsty metro\u2019s growing needs. And though the drought isn\u2019t as bad in central Oklahoma, the region is still very dry, putting even more pressure on Atoka Lake.<\/p><p>\u201cYou can see the water levels lowering. That\u2019s an indication that this water is being used \u2014 this water that we take from the lake into the water treatment plants,\u201d Oklahoma City Utilities Department spokesperson Debbie Ragan says.<\/p><p>Ragan says the situation is far from dire right now, but her department stands ready to implement further restrictions on water use if necessary.<\/p><p>\u201cAt the end of December, Oklahoma City had an accessible water supply of about 65 percent of the total available water supply when the lakes are full,\u201d Ragan says. \u201cSo there are no current concerns warranting any additional action at this time.\u201d<\/p><p>Ragan says the city remains permanently in \u201cStage 1\u201d water restrictions, which limits days residents can water lawns or outdoor plants. It\u2019s a lesson learned during the crippling five-year drought that ended in 2015.<\/p><p>\u201cThis is a relatively low water use time, so we think we\u2019re in good shape for now,\u201d Ragan says.<\/p>\n<h3>Waiting for spring<\/h3><p>McManus says what\u2019s happening in Oklahoma mirrors the current trend across the southern U.S.: Drought spreading from southeast to northwest.<\/p><p>Other states in the region have been luckier \u2014 Texas got a big dose of moisture last week \u2014 but Oklahoma got caught in an unfortunate pattern. Rainfall ebbed in early summer, as is usually the case, but the state all but missed its secondary rainy season this past fall. The winter months are typically the driest, so the drought has taken hold.<\/p><p>McManus says the La Ni\u00f1a phenomenon, which usually means cooler-than-normal waters off the Pacific Coast of South America, helped keep Oklahoma dry during the fall, but La Ni\u00f1a is now waning.<\/p><p>\u201cNow that La Ni\u00f1a has weakened so much I think they\u2019ve really taken some of those impacts away,\u201d McManus says. \u201cSo I think there is some hope that we might come back to a normal precipitation pattern as we get into the spring.\u201d<\/p><p>McManus says Oklahoma experienced a similar climate pattern in its history \u2014 a long-lasting drought peppered with the occasional wet year. That happened in the 1930s, during the Dust Bowl years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Drought is back in Oklahoma. More than half the state now falls in the extreme drought category, and normally water-rich southeast Oklahoma is bearing the brunt of a very dry fall and winter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[491],"tags":[423,364,427],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27823"}],"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=27823"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27823\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27832,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27823\/revisions\/27832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}