Tuesday, February 6, 2007; Posted: 7:00 p.m. (CDT)

Norman, Okla. -- January was an active month in our state for winter precipitation, however, much of the state is still experiencing drought-like conditions.

Climatologist Gary McManus, with the Oklahoma Climate Survey, says much of the state has experienced extremely dry conditions throughout the past two years.  While the winter weather has been annoying to many, farmers have welcomed it.

"While the snow and ice are unwelcome for travelers, it's very welcome by farmers who have been in disastrous drought conditions," says McManus.

McManus says much of the state is still experiencing drought conditions despite the precipitation  He says it's difficult to make up for lost time.

"While we've received all this rainfall it has to continue into the spring in order to erase two years worth of deficits," explains McManus.

He says the driest areas are in the north-central and southwest parts of the state.  McManus says they're expecting a drier than normal spring, meaning those already dry areas will be at an increased risk for fire danger.  McManus says the metro has received enough precipitation to lower the fire risk.

McManus says there's little explanation for the dry spell.  He says it's a weather pattern forecasters have grown to know.

"We're used to seeing these decade-long droughts in our past and so when we've seen these dry couple years here, they kind of set off alarm bells that perhaps we're entering another one of these extended droughts."