Hope you're having a great week, Weather Blog readers!
We continue to dry out after the heavy rainfall on Saturday as we saw widespread 1-3" (green and yellow) across the Kansas City metro, with the area south of Kansas City picking up 6-8" (purple)!
That is a tremendous amount of rain to pick up over a 24-48 hour period, but it was perfect because that spot needed 6-10" to completely end the drought (red and orange).
The north side of the KC Metro did not receive as much rainfall, but that's OK because that area didn't need it quite as badly, only considered to be "abnormally dry." It's important to keep in mind though these drought categories have not been updated since last Thursday, we are expecting improvement when the new Drought Monitor is released later this week.
Overall, wet weather was and still is needed after the dry summer we had, trees over a large portion of the Midwest are considered to be highly stressed (darker orange).
In the short term there aren't any strong signals for more heavy, widespread rainfall. Outside of maybe some light rainfall late this afternoon we will be dry. Next Wednesday is our next best rain chance, but confidence is low at this time.
However, when we look at the forecast the near 10-14 days, there are some wet signals showing up across the nation's mid-section.
At the risk of stating the obvious, trees need moisture to help hold onto the leaves as they change color in response to the lack of sunlight in fall.
Overall, I think we are still on target to hit the average time frame of peak fall foliage, which is mid-to-late October..maybe leaning more toward the "mid" this year.
The less rainfall we get moving forward, the earlier the peak of color, which according to the Missouri Department of Conservation, will impact fall color. The impacts will likely be less vibrant colors and more dulls as stressed tress drop brown leaves.
So we could use a little bit more rainfall to help with the health of the trees and cool overnight temperatures so the leaves hold onto their pretty colors a little longer.
Be sure to send any pretty tree pictures to pics@kshb.com as we go through the fall season.
