Drought Continues To Plague Ok Panhandle

While heavy rains from severe storms have
caused flooding in eastern Oklahoma – much of the western half of
the state remains in a drought that’s rated from extreme to
exceptional.
The conditions are raising worries among custom wheat harvesters
who say the crop is bleak.
The U.S. Drought Monitor released Thursday places Tillman County
and parts of Jackson and Kiowa counties as in an exceptional
drought while most of the remainder of the western half of the
state and about two-thirds of the Panhandle are in an extreme
drought.
The wheat harvest traditionally begins in Grandfield in Tillman
County where custom harvester Karl Jantz told The Oklahoman that if
he cuts any wheat there it will likely only be for seed for next
year’s crop.