Tuesday, May 23, 2017

May Rainfall Adding Up

Both April and May have proved to be very rainy months.  The cooler and rainy weather during April pushed back the start of spring planting and the excessive rainfall during the month of May caused some farmers to have to go back and replant some of their corn.  According to the Illinois Crop Progress and Condition report from the USDA, farmers continued planting soybeans last week while some others went back to replanting corn.  Corn planted in Illinois is at 89 percent, very near the 5 year average of 90 percent, while soybeans planted is at 48 percent.  This week won't be the ideal week for fieldwork and many will have to dodge the raindrops to get work done outside.

On average, the month of May receives just a little over four inches of rainfall.  So far we've received roughly three and a half.  Note: this does NOT include the rain that fell Tuesday afternoon.  This puts us at a little over 0.80" above where we should be for this time of the month.

Additional showers will fall overnight Tuesday and again on Wednesday.  The overall coverage is expected to remain a little lighter than what it was on Tuesday, but it will continue to push our monthly rainfall total closer and closer to that four inch mark. 

We are actually beginning to enter into one of the rainiest periods for spring and summer with May being the third wettest month out of the year.  June is typically our wettest month, followed by August.  As the atmosphere warms it can actually hold a little more water vapor.  The warmer the atmosphere, the more rain that can fall.  It's also when we tend to get more MCS type storm clusters during the late evening and overnight.

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