Kansas is drying out - will this trend change?

Most of us had some bonus rains earlier this spring, but in the last 45 days, we have certainly started to see a different trend. Almost everyone in Kansas had a surplus on rains in during the month of April:

• Wichita (+4.69")
• Salina (+0.60")
• Dodge City (+5.84")
• Goodland (+0.53")

May rainfall (compared to normal):

• Wichita (-0.13")
• Salina (-0.88")
• Dodge City (+1.77")
• Goodland (+4.71")

June rainfall (compared to normal):

• Wichita (-0.62")
• Salina (-2.42")
• Dodge City (-0.12")
• Goodland (+1.19")

So far in July, nearly everyone has had less than .50", except Dodge City where 1.63" has fallen. The corn is getting ready to pollinate and it's crucial for the temperatures to stay down (including at night), but it just doesn't look like that will happen. 

July look at this map from the last 7 days:

Rainfall has been spotty, but the places that struggle the most getting rain sometimes have had some luck.

Let's look at what happens at the end of this week:

The heat dome pushes back to the west, which may allow for some scattered storms to develop Thursday evening AND maybe into Friday along a slow moving front. It's tough to get overly excited about the rain chances because they will be so hit and miss. But they could be our only chances this week.

But next week (July 17-20), the huge high pressure heat cooker moves right back over the top of Kansas. So the heat will be coming back.

Where things will start getting interesting once again will be at the end of next week (around July 22nd) The models "hint" at some leftover tropical moisture that might make it into the Plains, but that's so far down the road that we just don't even know if that's possible yet.