ST. LOUIS – Sunday’s rain totals varied widely across the region ranging from over three inches in parts of the metro area, to just a few sprinkles in other areas. These wide variations in rainfall amounts will have varying effects on the drought.
“The rain that we saw (Sunday) was very localized in terms of heavier amounts. And that’s really the name of the game into the late spring and early summer,” Matt Beitscher, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in St. Louis, said. “We go from more widespread rain events to more localized, what we call, ‘convective rainfall.’”
That rain provided some relief to parts of the area, but we’re now playing catch up from our abnormally dry spring. Rain amounts in spring, usually our wettest time of year, were several inches below normal.
When it comes to drought relief, it not only matters how much rain falls, but where the rain falls.
“Unfortunately, a lot of the rain fell almost right into the Mississippi River ,which is not really going to help us a ton for the drought. So places that saw a lot of rain in St. Louis, St. Louis County, part of St. Charles, and then the metro east. They’re probably going to see some localized improvement in the drought condition, which is good news,” Beitscher said.
“But on the large scale, unfortunately, we need a lot more rain, and we need a lot more folks to get that rain, and it needs to go through the hydrologic system a little more slowly than just dumping all that water into the Mississippi.”