Drought Conditions Give Way to A Deluge of Rain

What a weekend it was. It was nothing short of amazing the big turnaround we have had in rainfall. Paul Hadfield shot this from Decatur, Illinois during a severe thunderstorm that popped up on Saturday evening. This picture should make the front of a 2008 weather calendar. Way to go Paul! Here in the Lafayette area we had very few lightning strikes this weekend and plenty of welcome rain. We had the best of both worlds. Here are some of the big rainfall totals from around the area.



There is no longer a haze of dust covering portions of the sky in Benton and White Counties and you can see why. Some areas literally doubled their rain since late April. The news was even good for Tippecanoe County as you can see below.



On Friday, it was one of those forecasts where I thought we would actually make everybody happy. The farmers would see some needed rain and our plans should be okay with scattered rain showers with the key word being scattered. Our wild Indiana weather lived up to its name and Saturday was more of a washout although folks told me they still went out and listened to some great music at the Fiddlers Gathering. But many folks were singing the blues in the rain as many softball and baseball games were rained out. This is a humbling business at times and this was a perfect example. I am just glad we really needed a rain and I still do think it will help our viewing area dodge the worst of any drought that does take place in Indiana this summer. Our soil moisture is looking much better! Take a look at a dent we put into our rainfall deficit we have had since April 27th. We still will have to watch things closely, but things are looking up!



We can thank the area of low pressure you see below for bringing us some drought relief.



Our waves of rain were caused by an area of low pressure that stayed stronger, longer than expected. Instead of spinning and rapidly weakening to our west like all the weather models depicted, it remained strong and even came right for us bringing plenty of rain. We knew the potential was there for this to happen and certainly nature pounced on the opportunity. The building heat wave to the West can be blamed because it caused this low pressure to really dig and hold together. Remember nature likes to keep the balance. Areas in the West were near 100 degrees while we paid for it with highs only in the 60s on Saturday.

Luckily for me, I was attending an indoor event or the preliminary Prairie State Swim League Championships at Mc Cutcheon High School. It certainly was a great day to watch not only some great swimmers from Lafayette but from all over the area. There were teams from Monticello, Attica, Lafayette CC, Fountain, Benton, Warren, and Rensselaer. Here is a picture of a few swimmers from the Mc Cutcheon Swim Team. In the background from left to right you can see Kaitlyn Miller and Megan Prangley. In the foreground you can see Taryn Weber. She had a really cool pig hat on and was full of energy. They all had a great time and that is what is all about.



Tonight is the finals for the PSSL at Mc Cutcheon High School. It is definitely worth your time to see some great swimmers. Already two records have been set in the preliminary round and things are just starting to heat up like our weather. I will have more on this and the muggiest weather of the season tonight on WLFI. I will see you soon on the tube and make sure to check back here on the web. Have a great day and stay cool!