Oklahoma's prevailing drought has just made history. And this bit of history isn't something to cheer about.

Ty Judd, meteorologist at the National Weather Service's Norman office, said the period between September and January has been the third driest of all time, with records dating back 116 years to 1890.

Only 28 percent of normal rainfall fell in Oklahoma City between September and January, according to National Weather Service data. Normally, 12.9 inches of rain can be expected during this time period. However, this year only 3.61 inches of rain fell.

"We would normally be dry this time of year, but not nearly this dry," Judd said.

Judd said the 0.29 inches of rain that have fallen in Norman since Jan. 1 have helped somewhat in the near term, but about 12 inches of rain are needed to overcome the dry conditions, Judd said.

Judd said the abnormally dry weather has been due to the fact that weather systems coming through central Oklahoma have been abnormally constructed, Judd said.

Normally, weather systems coming through the region will gather moisture from the Gulf of Mexico. Moisture is usually gathered over Oklahoma, giving the state rain or snow.

"The systems are coming through too fast to gather moisture this year," Judd said.

The systems moving through have only brought strong winds and warmer-than-average temperatures, while moisture return has not occurred until the systems reach far eastern Oklahoma or Arkansas, Judd said.

James Fullingim, deputy fire chief in Norman, said warmer-than-average temperatures and high winds have been the culprit of the abnormally severe fire season this year.

"Strong winds drive the wild land fires," Fullingim said.

Fullingim said higher temperatures, such as the ones we have seen this winter, cause relative humidities to drop, which aids in starting fires, Fullingim said.

Fullingim said that even though the fires have not been as severe as they were in January, the risk is still very high for wildfires.

Fullingim said OU students have been very cooperative by adhering to the statewide burn ban issued by Gov. Brad Henry.

"We've had good cooperation throughout the city," Fullingim said.

The city will issue a citation to a first-time offender, with penalties of up to $750, Fullingim said.

Judd said meteorological tools are available to help firefighters combat the fires.

Judd said smoke plumes and the direction they are flowing are visible on Doppler radar, he said. He also said some satellites can monitor fire hot spots.

Wednesday, saw only 19 acres were burned in the state, which is not a lot compared to other days. A total of 1,863 fires have charred 437,195 acres since Nov. 1, according to Oklahoma Forestry Service data.

Even with the small amount of acres burned Tuesday, the fire danger is still high.

"We can not let our guard down yet," John Roberts, incident commander at the Shawnee incident command post, said in a press release Wednesday.

According to the National Weather Service, There is a slight chance of rain Friday; however winds are forecasted to gust up to 32 miles per hour, according to the National Weather Service.

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