Rain gain puts area ahead for the year

Jun 12, 2009      St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Tim O'Neil

Jun. 12, 2009 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- Heavy showers have pushed the area above normal on rainfall for the first time this year, catching up after a dry winter but adding to planting-time delays for farmers.

The National Weather Service reported 1.25 inches fell Wednesday night and early Thursday at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport, bringing the year's total to 17.2 inches, or one-fourth inch above normal. At the end of March, the area was almost 2 inches below normal.

Such is the caprice of clouds. The two-state area suffered drought for most of 2005 through 2007, then had the wettest year ever recorded in 2008. Normal annual rainfall in St. Louis is about 39 inches.

Wednesday's storms rumbled through with splashy lightning shows and thunder after a warm, humid afternoon. The forecast calls only for a small chance of rain here through the weekend.

Area totals for the most recent storm ranged from 0.4 inch at the Melvin Price Lock and Dam at East Alton to 1.5 inches in Weldon Spring, where the Weather Service has its regional office.

In St. Louis, the months of March through May -- officially "spring" in the weather service records -- were barely above normal. But Gene Danekas, director of the Missouri Agricultural Statistics Service in Columbia, said many parts of the state had wetter springs that kept farmers from planting their crops until late May.

Missouri and Illinois crop services say most farmers are nearly caught up in planting crops, although Danekas called the recent storm "just another delay." Turning philosophical, he also said, "I've always told people who complain about too much rain that they've lost a lot more from too little rain than too much."

Newstex ID: 35713071

Return to full Washington Letter