The extreme heat is gone for the time being and has been replaced by intermittent rainfall since early Saturday morning.
The rainfall came as a byproduct of a much-needed cold front that pushed through the area late Friday into early Saturday. At the KVOE Studios, we received 0.30 inches of rainfall between the overnight and early morning hours.
Other totals include:
1100 Constitution: 0.2 inches Friday
If you have rain totals please message them to the KVOE Bluestem Farm and Ranch text line at 620-342-5863. You can also email totals to KVOE@KVOE.com.
While the rainfall will help to keep temperatures well below 100 degrees the next few days, it will do very little to help offset another meteorological issue that has been in place for some time, drought. National Weather Service Meteorologist Daniel Reese says the “small” showers that have come over the area the past few days are far from enough to help put a dent in drought conditions.
In fact, Reese tells KVOE News rainfall is well below previous year averages at this time. For example, so far for the month of August, Emporia has received around 2.15 inches of rainfall, roughly an inch below average.
According to the latest report from the US Drought Monitor released Thursday, most of the KVOE listening area is still in severe to extreme drought with virtually all of Chase and Greenwood counties in the extreme along with most of Coffey and portions of Lyon and Morris counties. The northern section of the listening area is currently in abnormally dry conditions.
This past week’s extreme heat did led to conservation efforts in both Chase and Lyon County. The City of Emporia issued a request for conservation from Wednesday morning to Friday night due to high levels of water use that nearly drained one of the towers in town.
As of Saturday evening, tower levels are holding steady according to City Manager Trey Cocking. The 12th Avenue tower is currently at 32.1 feet with the Industrial Park tower near Warren Way, the same tower that was nearly drained earlier in the week, at 23.0.
Forecasts are calling for high temperatures in the mid to upper 80s near 90 through the weekend and into the upcoming work week. Some chances for showers still persist through Saturday evening, however, no severe weather is expected.
For more information on the weather be sure to stay tuned to KVOE, KVOE.com and KVOE social media.
