Good morning bloggers,
I have been hearing from a few of you out there on how dry it is getting. I am hear to confirm that your perception is reality. There are spots around Kansas City that are now at around 30% of our average rainfall since June 1. It has been feast of famine for the rainfall that we have been receiving over Kansas and Missouri.
Rainfall in the past 30-days:
Here is the closer in version of our region:
As you can see above, there are wet areas and there are dry areas during the past 30-days. In our region, there is one small strip extending from just south of Lawrence, Kansas, southeast to Clinton, Missouri, that has been quite wet with 200 to 300% of average rainfall in the past 30-days, which means twice to three times above average rainfall.
At the same time, most other areas are below to way below average rainfall, with a few spots only having around 3.5" inches of rain or less this summer.
At KCI Airport, the rainfall is also way below average since June 1, while only being a bit below average for the year. Again, there are spots around Kansas City that have only had between 3 and 4 inches of rain since June 1.
What is causing this? The LRC! This dry spell didn't just happen during the summer. The pattern is cycling regularly at every nine-weeks, or close to every 63-64 days. Take a look at the blog headlines from near the end of the first cycle of this year's pattern:
Beginning in November, a big dry spell began and continued through a good part of December. The above blog headlines are from one written by Jeff Penner, and one written by myself, from early December. We are currently in the end of November part of the pattern. So, this was quite predictable from 8-months ago using the LRC.
Jeff even discussed, what we usually wait until summer to discuss, the "heat wave creating machine." And, this has now been a feature that has produce two heat waves already this summer with one more possible in the next 10 days.
A big warm-up is on the way once again, and this time there is no chance of rain at all showing up. We were in the middle of a long-dry-spell 8-months ago in that first LRC cycle moving into the second LRC cycle, and we are in another one now.
This pattern will continue to cycle until it transitions into the new pattern this fall. So, for now it is more of the same. The areas that have been wet recently, from St. Louis to Kentucky, will continue to get wet. Remember, Kentucky didn't just have this one horrific flood. They have had the worst disasters of this year's pattern from the recent flooding disaster that killed at least 37 people to the Mayfield, Kentucky tornado that killed 56 people. The part of the pattern that produced that EF-4 tornado will return in two to three weeks. What will the summer version bring? Most likely more flooding, unfortunately for them, and most likely not quite enough rain for Kansas City.
There is no end in sight at the moment. This year's LRC will provide some chances of rain later this month, and for now it is another 10 says or so of dry weather.
At least it is gorgeous this morning:
The temperatures dipped into the comfortable 60s this morning in most spots. It will be a great summer day with a high in the middle 80s this afternoon.
We will go in-depth and search for that next chance of rain on KSHB 41 News today and tonight.
Thank you for spending a few minutes of your day sharing in this weather experience! Have a terrific Tuesday!
Gary
