Monday, July 25, 2011

From no rain to almost too much

The first three weeks of July were very dry. We had only received a total of 0.19" during that time (records kept at the RFD airport).  This past weekend we made up for that in a short amount of time.  Even though we're still a little short of where we should be, many locations picked up several inches of rain from what fell Friday morning through Sunday morning.  So what changed to allow that much rain to fall?

Temperatures have been running above average all month as a ridge of high pressure has been very dominant across the Midwest.  This has kept the active storm track, and the heavy rainfall, to our north. 

At the end of last week that ridge shifted south and east bringing the extreme heat to the Mid-Atlantic and east coast.  As storms formed out west in Iowa and the central Plains during the evening hours they moved right over top the Stateline during the overnight.  The storms maintained their strength through the overnight due to the heat to the south as well as the moisture feed from the low level jet.

High pressure the next couple of days will allow us to dry out some but some indications are suggesting the middle of this week could bring some heavy rainfall once again.

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