Dry cycle continues for much of the Southwest

The 2011 historic drought resulted in a $7.6 billion loss (2010 and 2011), according to Southwest Farm Press.

“Lest recent precipitation, frozen and otherwise, lull Southwest farmers and ranchers into some kind of sense of drought relief,” said Al Sutherland, coordinator for the Oklahoma Mesonet ag program. “And things can go south in a hurry.”

He said much of the Southwest is in a negative phase (lower than normal rainfall).

“We could see an extended period of below average rainfall,” Sutherland said.

A drought is very expensive, and it can come on slowly, he said. It doesn’t attract as much attention as a tornado. But the cost can be equally devastating.

“It’s a dry cycle,” Sutherland said. “From the 1980s to the early 2000s, we had above average rainfall in Oklahoma. That’s a 30-year stretch. Texas had a wet period back into the 1960s. In the Texas Rolling Plains, with an annual average rainfall of 28.7 inches, the wet times were not as pronounced as for other parts of the Southwest. And dry periods were more severe.”