OKLAHOMA CITY – The Oklahoma Legislature, during last week’s short, three-day special session, earmarked more than $20 million from the state’s Emergency Drought Relief Fund to help offset the economic impact of the dry weather.
The appropriation, made under House Bill 1006XX, pulls money from the state’s general revenue fund. During the spring, the Legislature approved $3 million for drought relief.
The long dry weather cycle continues to cause problems in Oklahoma. In September, Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt issued an emergency declaration to reactivate the state’s drought commission.
In January, Oklahoma Mesonet showed that most of the western half of the state had received less than one inch of rain from late November 2021 through January 2022. The weather monitoring system reported that, as of Jan. 4 of this year, 94% of the state was experiencing abnormally dry conditions or worse.
“Forty percent of the state is experiencing extreme drought. Thirty-one percent of the state is experiencing severe drought,” Mesonet reported. “Fifteen percent of the state is experiencing moderate drought. Six percent of the state is experiencing abnormal dryness. Five percent of the state is not categorized as abnormally dry or worse.”
With no end to the drought in sight, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency opened accepting applications for the Livestock Forage Disaster Program to provide financial assistance to eligible livestock producers for 2022 grazing losses due to a qualifying drought or wildfire. According to the USDA, all 77 of the state’s counties had met the drought severity levels that trigger LFP eligibility for the program.
“Persistent and severe drought conditions across the state have significantly impacted our livestock producers,” said Steve Kouplen, state executive director for the FSA in Oklahoma. “Eligible producers are encouraged to contact their local FSA office to schedule an appointment to apply for drought recovery assistance.”
State Rep. Dell Kerbs, a Republican from Shawnee, said data shows that over half the state is currently facing extreme drought, while 14% is classified at the highest level – exceptional drought.
"The vast majority of farms in our state are family-owned, many of which have been operating for generations," Kerbs said in a media statement. "We need to take care of our farmers and ranchers because they're the ones who take care of us, and this bill gave us an opportunity for the legislative body to help those in need now while also mitigating future situations."
While lawmakers continue to push for ways to address the dry conditions in the state, records from the Oklahoma Historical Society show that localized, short-term droughts are common in Oklahoma.
During the past 100 years, Oklahoma's major multiyear and multiregional droughts have taken place during 1909 to 1918, 1930 to 1940, 1952 to 1958, and, to a lesser extent, 1962 to 1972.
The Great Plains drought of 1988 and 1989 was the costliest natural disaster in the history of the United States, causing close to $40 billion in direct agricultural damages. A 1998 summer drought -- a four- to five-month event – caused about $2 billion of damages in Oklahoma.