I think you should be excited. Why not enjoy the improvement in your area's drought status even if it only lasts a few weeks? Improvement is improvement after all.

If you want to find the last Drought Monitor map that had your area in D-3 versus D-4, or the first map that showed y'all in D-4, just go to the U. S. Drought Monitor Map, click on "Maps and Data" at the top of the page. It will give you a list of several options. Click on "Map Archive" and you can choose maps to look at by date. I imagine if you start in June or July 2011, you'll either find the last D-3 week y'all had before moving into D-4 to stay practically forever, or you may find the first week you moved into D-4 in 2011. I know that my county (which had good spring rain in 2011, especially in May, I think) didn't hit D-4 until late July or early August, so I'm thinking your county had to have hit D-4 in June or early July.

Dawn

Thanks for that. I didn't know how to get to the archive. I obviously didn't try very hard to find it. I know we were in D4 on May 3, 2011 because that map was posted on the Mesonet ticker a few weeks ago.

I just checked the archives and the first week we were in D4 (barely) was the week before, April 26, 2011. But then they lowered us to D3 on May 24 and moved us back to D4 on June 21. We only had three quarters of an inch of rain between April 26 and May 24, but I guess they thought that was enough to move us out of exceptional and back into extreme. So I guess technically it wasn't 3 years but it was pretty close. Either way, way too long!

Leslie

I am kind of surprised that they moved y'all out back then based on such a small amount. It seems strange.

I'm glad you were able to find the data you wanted, and even if it wasn't technically three years, I bet it still felt like 21 years in dog years. : ) A week at D-4 is too long. A month is torture. A year is total misery. Almost three years? Hard for my brain to comprehend what that would be like. We may occasionally hit D-4 here, but we never stay there more than a few weeks to a few months.

Enjoy D-3 for as long as it lasts because, if another big storm system doesn't bring western OK a lot more rain, this will be just another long, miserable summer like every summer has been since 2011. Might as well enjoy being "only" in extreme drought while it lasts since we know it won't last nearly long enough.

Are plants greening up nicely there?

I've linked the Long-Term Palmer Drought Severity Index map. It shows, by region, how much rainfall an area needs to get more or less out of drought. In 2011, a lot of us were in the purple or dark blue on that map so, all things considered, it doesn't look nearly as bad now as it did then. Of course, summer isn't even here yet either.
Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:367116}}

The weather people are making noises about rain next week. I won't quote the QPF or anything :)

Lisa

Looks like I am on the D3 D4 line. All I know is that the plants loved it last week.

I went to get a load of topsoil and a shower popped up - a pretty good one that made mud in my pick up. I wish I had gone for topsoil yesterday and last week because I think I caused the rain.