A picture of our weather

The news in a nutshell from the State Climatology Office. And this doesn't even show yesterday's high of 105 degrees. Today is only supposed to be 102 degrees. For those of you not familiar with a Wisconsin map, Madison is just about dead center of the largest county in the chartreuse area of the bottom (precip) map.

 

"State Bulletin by Dr. John Young, Director & Dr. Edward Hopkins, Climatologist
From: 2 July 2012

Seriously dry conditions have developed over southern Wisconsin during June. Several stations in the south central sections of the state reported the driest June on record. Madison received only 0.31 inches of rain, breaking a 117-year record. This amount was only 7 percent of normal June rainfall. Beaver Dam (0.33 in), Ft. Atkinson (0.42 in) and Watertown (0.50 in) also experienced their lowest June rainfall totals.

On June 26, the U.S. Drought Monitor classified the lowest ¼ of the state as under “abnormally dry” (D0) or “moderate drought” (D1) conditions. The abnormally dry to moderate drought conditions have been the result of spring rain deficits that became extreme in June, as well as with continuing abnormal warmth. The dryness is most pronounced in the upper soil layers of south central counties, where the short-time drought index ranks the dryness in the top 5% of occurrences. Deeper soil layers reflecting ground water have not reached abnormally dry levels.

Wisconsin has experienced 6 straight months of above normal temperatures that hastened soil drying by evaporation at many locations. However, the northwestern third of the state experienced June rains of twice the normal amounts. 
Additional drought information for the Midwest is found at Midwestern Regional Climate Center.

 The outlooks for July from weather computer models and the NOAA Climate Prediction Centerindicate that southern Wisconsin would have a better than even chance of above average temperatures, while most of the Badger State could have close to average precipitation."

 

Comments

[Lisa at Greenbow]

Believe me we feel your pain down here in SW IN. Scary dry.
They moved us to the D4 last week. I think that is the worst it can be. How long it will last?? We will just have to wait and see.

[Linda Brazill]

Lisa — We are only D1 and it seems dreadful, so I cant imagine what its like for you. Im watering the garden but, even though I usually leave the sprinklers on for an hour and then move them so they overlap, its dry so deep that it just doesnt penetrate. Things that look good one day are completely flopped and stressed the next day. From what Ive been reading, it sounds like this is kaput for the corn crop. 

[mamaraby]

I had to chuckle when I saw this post turn up in my RSS reader because I had *just* been on that exact same website the night before. Apparently we all have rain on the brain.

I don't have a great number of plants that I'm concerned about keeping alive and I am trying to avoid certain areas to see if the Burdock will die back on its own, but at this point it's become a matter of necessity. Yesterday I had to get the hydrangea watered because it was looking very droopy. Today I bought a different sprinkler. I was one of 5 or so people in the aisle and the guy who was stocking the shelves at Farm & Fleet said they've been selling loads of them every day.

I often wonder when folks at the stores and such are going to start watering the trees and bushes in their parking lots. There are so many of them that look like they desperately need it!