Bryan1117

This pattern is extremely odd… I can’t remember there being multiple days of pop-up scattered showers and storms that have moved in from the northeast (Iowa) during the month of June, however that’s what we are being dealt. The past few days have been feeling more like late July/ early August weather… widespread rain/ precipitation is still really lacking here. I am very glad that we picked up the decent rains this past Thursday because it’s been more “miss” since then (at least in my backyard). Yesterday was a prime example of how frustrating this pattern has been (much like CentralNebWeather’s post above) as we got caught under a very heavy downpour about 2-1/2 miles north of our house, however when we got home there was nothing more than a few sprinkles. I did pick up 0.70” of rain total last week (almost all that came on Thursday) which we will absolutely take, however we still need a lot more to improve the drought here.

Finished with 0.60” of rainfall today from multiple rounds of showers and storms… it looks like my parched lawn soaked up every single drop of it. Still a long way to go to make up for the long term moisture deficits, however it was nice to get some moisture today.

Thankfully we are off to a great start here, now up to a 1/2 inch of rain so far today from a few rounds of showers and storms (some dropping some decent downpours). We picked up more rainfall the first 12 hours of June then we had the whole month of May. Looks like we might pick up a bit more this afternoon… as well.

Started off June with some light rain this morning which was nice to finally see, unfortunately only 0.03” in the rain gauge. This was the first measurable rainfall in over 3 weeks so it’s nice to know liquid can still fall from the sky here LOL… really hoping we can score some more moisture later today.

Pretty insightful graphic from NWS Omaha on the lack of moisture in Eastern Nebraska, not just this month but for the last two years for most of the area. Crazy to think that Lincoln has had it even worse than Omaha the last few months.

Consider yourself lucky OttumwaSnomow … another 0.00” in the rain gauge today here - officially the driest May ever for Omaha with 0.17” total for the month. REALLY hoping things turn around during the month of June, however I am not optimistic at all.

Des Moines is doing wonderful compared to Eastern Nebraska and Southern Iowa… crazy that it’s looking VERY likely we will finish with 0.17” of rain for the month of May here (unless we get a miracle shower or thunderstorm to pop up around here).

The 20-30% chances of rain here this coming week only seem like small glimmers of hope here as things keep drying up… it is very hard to break dry patterns like this and unfortunately I can see the drought areas in Nebraska and Kansas continuing to rapidly expand eastward.

Whatever it is, it really needs to go away… 0.17” of rain so far this month (4” below average) and now it’s been 3 weeks since I have seen measurable rain in my backyard. There might as well be a wall out to our west blocking rain and storms from moving in, everything just evaporates into nothing by the time it gets here. We have seen awful weather patterns around here over the years, however this one is by far the worst I have ever experienced.

Wow, 6 to 10 inches of rain being reported near McCook and other areas of far Southwest Nebraska… while I can’t buy a drop of rain here - crazy extremes across this state right now.

Another ridiculous day of watching scattered showers and thunderstorms develop 20-25 miles to my west while watching showers fade to nothing as they crossed the river from Western Iowa. I am now at two straight weeks without even a trace of precipitation in my backyard. The Omaha/ Lincoln “death ridge” just won’t budge and the forecast shows more bone dry weather ahead for the next 7 days… it’s time to break the record for lack of rainfall during the month of May here locally. The 30-day observed rainfall graphic shows this localized death ridge very well...

If this verifies (looks like it’s a good bet that we don’t get any rain this weekend), it will solidify this as the driest May in Omaha’s history… I haven’t ever seen unwatered areas of grass start to go dormant this early in the season. I feel for the local farmers, if we don’t get something soon this summer is going to be even worse than last year.

Really hoping we can squeeze something out of the 20-30% rain chance tonight, as it’s looking bone dry around here for the next 7-10 days. Unfortunately 2023 is looking like a solid repeat of 2022 weather-wise around here, which isn’t good unless you like heat and occasional dust storms. UPDATE - Scratch the rain chances for this evening… replaced by Canadian wildfire smoke - yay!

Beginning to let go of any hope for a pattern change around here. Also to make matters worse, we are falling behind on annual moisture pretty quickly now after a decent start (we are now at almost a 2 inch precipitation deficit year to date here in Omaha). The trends are not our friend right now for the summer months. Hopefully you all down in Eastern Kansas and Western Missouri don’t start feeling our recent pain as well.

Not starting the week off well here in the Omaha and Lincoln metro areas... another "near miss" for decent precipitation .