2 week rains & a look ahead

It's amazing how quickly things have turned around for Kansas in regards to the drought. In nearly two weeks, some areas have had more rain than in 6 months of 2012. Water levels are up, streams are running bank full, and abnormally dry conditions are limited to far western Kansas.

I'm posting rainfall amounts since July 23 and even southwest Kansas has noticed some ease in the drought conditions, but the northwest has quickly moved into first place for some of the driest areas of the region. The new drought monitor map will be out Thursday (August 8) and we will have a better handle on where the "extreme" and "exception" areas lie, but they have to be getting a little smaller with the kind of pattern we've seen over the state.

There is still no clear indication when things may dry out for more than just a few days. Some of the longer range computer models continue to keep the main high pressure system to our south, allowing for the hot, dry weather to reside over Texas, with our weather remaining active. As is often the case, when you have so much available humidity over a given area, it won't take much to set off storms and keep the rain chances around. It should be very interesting to see what kind of fall we will have. With abundant rains and less hot temperatures, we could be in for a real treat in October and November when the leaves are changing. Time will tell.