May rainfall records - very active start to June

I should point out here at the start that drought does continue in Kansas, but receives a major setback after the very generous rainfall the month of May had to offer up. At the beginning of the month, I wasn't convinced the rainfall would arrive in the amounts that it did, but we are in better shape than a month ago.

I want to focus on the record rainfall that some had over the last 30-40 days, but we haven't forgotten about the areas farther west that are still in pretty rough shape with the lack of moisture.

Here are the final May numbers for the major reporting stations that we track:

Almost 13" of rain for Wichita and look at Salina - doing much better than a month ago. Both locations have reached the top 5 wettest Mays on record.

Wichita missed 1st place by less than .25" of rain. Most of that came in the last week of the month, while for Salina, much of that came in the last full week (prior to Memorial Day)

So where do we go from here:

The forecast is tricky to say the least because we have several pieces of energy coming off the Rockies and down into the Plains. Every time we see something coming out of the west, it may setoff a new round of rain. It's almost like standing next to a flooded creek or stream, and every piece of debris floating by in the water, sets off a new round of rain. That's what we are up against. Forecasting them is tough and specific details of where the rain will be may not be known until we are 24-36 hours out from the event.

What we take away from this is that over the next 8-10 days, there will be more rain. Good news for those in western and northern Kansas - maybe not the best news for those dealing with flooding. We need to fill farm ponds and lakes - so runoff can be quite beneficial. However, in south central and eastern Kansas, we really could use some drier weather for now. We don't want the rains to shut off completely because we could fry in the summer heat.

Month of June (temperatures):

Right now, it looks like it WON'T be a scorching month ahead for Kansas. The additional rainfall in central and eastern Kansas should moderate temperatures quite well. However, farther west, I would look for near normal heat throughout the month - many more days with highs in the 90s than what we would see farther east.

Rainfall:

This may be reason to smile - especially across the west. While the drought isn't going to be over in 30 days, there may be some help coming. The active pattern to start the month could help ease the stress in the west, but we have a long way to go. Long range models offer hope of above average moisture in much of the state. When we think about average rainfall, for most of Kansas that would be 3-5 inches in many areas - June being one of the wetter months of the year.

Have a great day.