Investigating Fort Reno, Oklahoma, growing season temperature and precipitation maxima temporal variability and corresponding impacts to hydrological and agricultural observations

Study region Central Oklahoma, USA Study focus Research shows that the timing of regional growing season maxima in daily temperature and precipitation is related to the sub-seasonal to seasonal variability of precipitation. However, it is uncertain if these results will translate to the local scale. The studies goal is to extend asynchronous difference index (ADI) research to the Fort Reno location within the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)-Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Oklahoma and Central Plains Agricultural Research Center. Numerous datasets were combined to investigate ADI and its impacts on meteorological, hydrological, and agricultural facets of the environment. Analysis shows that ADI impacts the environment similarly to regional results, namely that April to June precipitation is enhanced (reduced) for positive (negative) ADI growing seasons and July to October precipitation is reduced (enhanced). These regimes of precipitation variability impacted local hydrology and agricultural yields. Overall, this study shows that the regional aspects of ADI translate to the local scale, and that the regimes of ADI relate to distinct hydrologic and agricultural outcomes. New hydrological insights for the region This research shows that ADI relates to not only meteorological features of the environment, but also to local hydrological and agricultural conditions. Knowledge of ADI can potentially be used to infer the impact of heavy precipitation events later in the year and water requirements for future growing seasons.