Sleet Brought By Winter Storm Benefits Agriculture In Oklahoma

Some people still have sleet drifts that haven't melted in their yards yet, but this most recent winter storm did do some good for agriculture in Oklahoma.

Tuesday, March 1st 2022, 5:35 pm

By: Hannah Scholl


Some people still have sleet drifts that haven't melted in their yards yet, but this most recent winter storm did do some good for agriculture in Oklahoma.

With the ongoing drought, especially in the western portion of the state, any moisture is welcome.

As far as types of precipitation, snow generally ends up melting into less liquid water than sleet.

Since sleet is basically just frozen rain pellets, its liquid water content is very similar to rain.

Wes Lee, the Oklahoma Mesonet Agriculture Coordinator, says all this water content went straight to where its most needed.

"We are going to get most of the value of the water in sleet to percolate right into the solid as it took three, four days to melt. We're not going to have a lot of runoff," he says. 

It is possible for sleet to form an ice sheet as it melts, which blocks the sun from the plants below it.

This is generally the biggest negative impact for plants from sleet, but Lee says we didn't get enough for that to happen this time.

Stock ponds, reservoirs and creeks could use some runoff right now, which we don't get from sleet.

Looking ahead, we have some rain in the forecast which would benefit those water sources.

Hannah Scholl

Hannah Scholl is a Meteorologist, Traffic Reporter, and Multimedia Journalist.

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