Let it rain and rain!!

The month of April ended with some record-low rainfall amounts from Goodland and Garden City. As promised, we would call these out once they were finalized and here's what we've got:

Interestingly enough, Goodland picking up more than 1" of rain on Monday (in a 24 hour period) is the first time that has happened in almost a year.

Slow moving system provides widespread rain:

The Wednesday/Thursday system should drop some good moisture in the Plains. I can't guarantee that everybody will get 1", but most of us will see something close to that (and more). And this is spread out into Thursday too, so please be patient. This moisture will wrap around a low pressure system that will sit in Kansas for about 36 hours. Heaviest will probably go across south central or southeast Kansas, but everybody in the state will get rain. This might be one of the heaviest (and most widespread rain events) we will have in this entire month. 

The map shown below is rainfall compared to normal - the numbers indicating how far below average. Remember that much of the state gets about 3-5.5" in the entire month. In some areas, May is the wettest month of the year (according to the averages). 

May averages look like this:

Enough rain to just get by, but not the heavy, pond-filling rains that some areas need to get through a dry summer.

Final thoughts on the Andover tornado:

I've received several questions regarding the track, and some disputing the original map showing the damage path. We don't make the map - National Weather Service meteorologists that go out and survey the damage come up with the details and the EF rating. I think some felt it should be rated EF4 since some homes lost ALL of the walls - only thing left was a foundation and sub-flooring. However, we were told from the meteorologist out surveying that those walls were only nailed to the sub-flooring and not anchored down with screws. Therefore, less wind needed to tear those walls down. Therefore, it gets an EF3 rating with peak winds of 165 mph. 

Here's how the tornado tracks compare (from 1991 to April 14, 2012 to Friday night) Although similar, the F5 from 91 tracked farther west than what happened Friday night. The April 2012 storm lifted before it really reached the Andover community. It is quite fascinating (although sad) that particular area continues to get hit. 

A special thank you to our storm chasers who helped sound the alarm for early warning. There were a few tornadoes on Friday and no serious injuries or fatalities - we credit that to early warning and a team effort among meteorologists and spotters.