State climatologist Harry Hillaker says the rain on Tuesday was the most widespread rainfall the state has seen since June 26th. The rain on the second to last day of month wasn’t enough to pull August out of its moisture deficit.
Hillaker says the state overall averaged 3.02 iches of rain in August, which was 1.17 inches below normal. That ranks it as the 49th driest August in 139 years of weather records. Hillaker says southeast Iowa suffered the most from the lack of rainfall.
He says Burlington for example, had only .44 of an inch of rain, which made it their driest August since 1920. On the other end, southwest Iowa, which had been dry, saw some good rains. He says Clarinda was wettest spot in southwest Iowa, with 9.88 inches of rain– or double the usual amount.
August started out in the blast furnace, but ended up with more moderate temperatures. Hillaker says the first few days of the month started out about 10-degrees above normal, but then things cooled off later and overall temperatures averaged 72.3-degrees about one degree above average. He says the month ended up the 69th warmest on record.
The first eight months of this year saw percipitation one-half inch above normal and the temperatures averaged two-tenths of a degree above normal. Hillaker says things have averaged out pretty close to normal for the year as the cool start to the year was offsett by the warmer summer.
He says the preliminary numbers show it was the warmest summer since 1995. The wet June was canceled out in the average by the dry July and August. Hillaker says he deosn’t see any particular trends for the fall from what we’ve seen so far this summer. But he says the new projection from the National Weather Service is forecasting drier than usual weather for September.
See more state weather info here: www.iowaagriculture.gov/climatology.asp