Ag Weather Forum

Wide Variety In SW Plains Rain

Bryce Anderson
By  Bryce Anderson , Ag Meteorologist Emeritus
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Here's a rainfall rundown for the past seven days in the southwestern Plains. There were some wide variances in precipitation as is to be expected. The Texas Panhandle did quite well. Farther north and east--a lot more spotty.

Amarillo TX 3.62

Borger TX 1.40

Dalhart TX 1.22

Guymon OK 1.78

Lubbock TX 5.23

Childress TX 3.82

Perryton TX .30

Enid OK .38

Dodge City KS .19

Garden City KS .68

Medicine Lodge KS .74

Goodland KS .99

Hill City KS .89

Burlington CO .45

McCook NE 2.57

Bryce

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Comments

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Bryce Anderson
5/30/2014 | 11:07 AM CDT
Back to the topic of southern Plains rain--we did see a 1-level improvement in Drought Monitor categories in the Texas Panhandle. The southern Panhandle improved from level 3 (Extreme) to level 2 (Severe). And the northern Panhandle saw several counties improve from level 4 (Exceptional) to level 3 (Extreme). Western Oklahoma saw similar improvement as well as Central Texas. But there is a long, long way to recovery. Forecasts for the next week have very little follow-up moisture for this region.
Brandon Butler
5/29/2014 | 3:46 PM CDT
Science is now up for a vote, for now. Dissenters are banished (see Britain). Sound familiar to anything in the last century?
Brad Niehues
5/28/2014 | 1:24 PM CDT
There is no doubt there was definately some wide variances in moisture for SW Kansas. We ended up with about 1.25" in extreme SW Kansas near the OK border. Some people I've talked to the north and east got almost nothing. Very disapointing when for five days they had forecasted 50-70% rainall chances and it rained essentially one day. I'm glad we got what we got and for the other areas that have been as dry or drier than us finally got some soaking rains. Unfortunately for us the rains came too late and this will be the fourth year in a row of very poor dryland wheat in our area after having such a great start last fall. Obviously we are all hoping for more moisture to help summer crops and pastures, but we are in such a huge hole that it would take many soaking rains to ever dig out of this drought.
Bryce Anderson
5/28/2014 | 1:23 PM CDT
The key to Upper Midwest/Northern Plains conditions in our view was whether the persistent strong blocking high in central Canada would relax and retract farther north. It has--and we are seeing temperatures respond accordingly with the warmer conditions.
GWL 61
5/28/2014 | 11:44 AM CDT
Well it sure looks like our weather pattern is trying to change. It was just a couple weeks ago all we heard was going to be cooler than normal for us, now all of a sudden were pushing 90 degrees this week.
Bryce Anderson
5/28/2014 | 11:02 AM CDT
An additional point regarding that rain event--the forecast models, in the opinion of our Ag Weather group, did a very good job in predicting the rain and the area to be covered. The U.S. GFS model was especially robust in its depiction of the Texas coverage. The model also showed less coverage with lower amounts the farther north you went--which is what happened.