What happened to our April rainfall?

We were cruising along with some steady rains (even too much in some spots) and now all of a sudden, it has stopped. Reaching the halfway point of April and much of the state has only had a trace, or maybe no rain at all. And the freezing temperatures aren't doing us many favors either as it sounds like some of the wheat may have been damaging from the recent drop. Time will tell.

The faucet has been turned off for many lately:
Decent moisture during the first three months of the year have suddenly stopped, and I'm getting emails from some of you wondering if this is a sign of what's to come. My April outlook called for near to above normal rainfall, and so many of you haven't had a single drop.

Look at this map showing April moisture. All of the yellow on it indicates below average precipitation. Western Kansas is about .50" on the negative side, while farther east, it is closer to 1" below normal.

In the first three months of the year, we were off to a top 10 wettest starts. South central Kansas had over 7" of moisture, while in the southwest, it was about 3". Now all of a sudden, we find most of the moisture going south of us, which was expected at the beginning of the month.

Please don't panic! 

There are no signs of moving into major, prolonged drought. The next couple of weeks will be fairly active through the Plains. We are seeing signs of several systems of varying magnitudes coming through the area. That persistent dip in the jet stream west of the Plains should continue to bring chances of active weather our way through the end of the month. Will the rain go east of us, or will it setup right over Kansas? I don't think western Kansas will get that much moisture the next 2-3 weeks. Rainfall of an inch or two looks more probable farther east. The best we could hope for now is near normal rain (which would be an inch or two), but widespread soakers appear unlikely at this time.

When you get down to it, I think we will finish the month below average on rainfall (which is the image you see above), but we SHOULD get more rain that what we had during the first half of the month. The forecast of how much rain is shown below. Models are hinting at an inch or two for the next couple of weeks. If you need rain, let's hope this comes true.