Rain chances currently take us through the first week of September. Which is fitting, considering all the rain we had in August.
Here at the KVOE studios, we were blessed with 8.2 inches of rain last month. For comparison, we had received 10.3 inches from New Year’s Day through the end of July.
National Weather Service meteorologist Jennifer Prieto says a major pattern shift led to more rainfall last month. Much of the Central Plains was stuck under a ridge of high pressure from Memorial Day to the end of July, meaning precious few storm systems could wring out a humid atmosphere.
Before August, the wettest month at the studios was May, when we had 3.05 inches of rain. We received no precipitation in January or February at the station.
Because the area started with such a rainfall deficit — minus-6 inches since June, minus-9 inches for the calendar year — all this rain hasn’t had much impact on our current drought. Gone is the exceptional drought, the worst level on the US Drought Monitor scale, but the entire listening area is still in drought that’s listed as anwyhere from moderate to extreme.
Prieto says there are some indications the current unsettled pattern could continue for much of September.
