South Louisiana Drying out

[PTrackerLA]

Seems like just yesterday I checked the forecast and we had 40%-50% rain chance starting Tuesday through Saturday. Now look at this:

.TONIGHT...MOSTLY CLOUDY. A 20 PERCENT CHANCE OF RAIN AFTER
MIDNIGHT. LOWS IN THE MID 50S. SOUTHEAST WINDS AROUND 10 MPH IN
THE EVENING, BECOMING LIGHT AND VARIABLE.
.TUESDAY...MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A 20 PERCENT CHANCE OF RAIN AND
THUNDERSTORMS. HIGHS AROUND 80. SOUTHEAST WINDS 10 TO 15 MPH.
.TUESDAY NIGHT...DECREASING CLOUDS. LOWS AROUND 60. SOUTHEAST
WINDS AROUND 10 MPH IN THE EVENING, BECOMING LIGHT AND VARIABLE.
.WEDNESDAY...PARTLY CLOUDY. HIGHS IN THE LOWER 80S. SOUTH WINDS
UP TO 10 MPH.
.WEDNESDAY NIGHT...PARTLY CLOUDY. LOWS AROUND 60. SOUTH WINDS
AROUND 10 MPH.
.THURSDAY...PARTLY CLOUDY. HIGHS IN THE LOWER 80S.
.THURSDAY NIGHT THROUGH MONDAY...PARTLY CLOUDY. LOWS IN THE LOWER
60S. HIGHS IN THE LOWER 80S.

I know everyone likes the nice spring weather but my relative who is a farmer told me things are really getting dry out there. This is probably the worst time of the year to have rainfall deficits because of crops trying to get rooted in the ground. I checked some stats and we've had LESS than 2" of rain since February. I see a bad trend developing when these events look like they will bring plenty of rain a few days out turn out to be nothing. Looks like we might be entering a drought pattern this spring, which has happened at least 3 times since 2000. If we don't start getting rain look out for May to turn into a scorcher. One things for sure, sprinkler season is in full effect around here.

[Huckster]

Seems like just yesterday I checked the forecast and we had 40%-50% rain chance starting Tuesday through Saturday. Now look at this:

.TONIGHT...MOSTLY CLOUDY. A 20 PERCENT CHANCE OF RAIN AFTER
MIDNIGHT. LOWS IN THE MID 50S. SOUTHEAST WINDS AROUND 10 MPH IN
THE EVENING, BECOMING LIGHT AND VARIABLE.
.TUESDAY...MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A 20 PERCENT CHANCE OF RAIN AND
THUNDERSTORMS. HIGHS AROUND 80. SOUTHEAST WINDS 10 TO 15 MPH.
.TUESDAY NIGHT...DECREASING CLOUDS. LOWS AROUND 60. SOUTHEAST
WINDS AROUND 10 MPH IN THE EVENING, BECOMING LIGHT AND VARIABLE.
.WEDNESDAY...PARTLY CLOUDY. HIGHS IN THE LOWER 80S. SOUTH WINDS
UP TO 10 MPH.
.WEDNESDAY NIGHT...PARTLY CLOUDY. LOWS AROUND 60. SOUTH WINDS
AROUND 10 MPH.
.THURSDAY...PARTLY CLOUDY. HIGHS IN THE LOWER 80S.
.THURSDAY NIGHT THROUGH MONDAY...PARTLY CLOUDY. LOWS IN THE LOWER
60S. HIGHS IN THE LOWER 80S.

I know everyone likes the nice spring weather but my relative who is a farmer told me things are really getting dry out there. This is probably the worst time of the year to have rainfall deficits because of crops trying to get rooted in the ground. I checked some stats and we've had LESS than 2" of rain since February. I see a bad trend developing when these events look like they will bring plenty of rain a few days out turn out to be nothing. Looks like we might be entering a drought pattern this spring, which has happened at least 3 times since 2000. If we don't start getting rain look out for May to turn into a scorcher. One things for sure, sprinkler season is in full effect around here.

We've been experiencing a series of droughts since 1998 here. Even when we're not officially in a drought, it seems like the dry periods are still a lot longer than normal. There have been some really significant severe weather outbreaks in the U.S. during the springs in the last several years, but for the most part, we've missed out on severe weather and consistent rainfall. For example, at Baton Rouge, every April from 1998 to 2003 had below normal rainfall, and last year's April would have been below normal were it not for the nearly 4 inches of rain that fell on the last day of the month. April is normally one of our wettest months, but some of those Aprils had less than one inch of rain here. So far this April, we're at 2.19 inches below normal for the month-to-date. We've racked up a defecit of 5.2 inches since March 1st and 6.64 inches since January 1st. Last April's rainfall defecit was cured on the last day of the month, followed by over 10 inches of rain which fell here in May. Spots between Baton Rouge and Lafayatte got a lot more rain than that, I think radar estimates of over 20 inches. I lost every single thing I planted last year because of that rain. The last few years, it has either been all or none. So far, for most of south central Louisiana and southwest Louisiana, it doesn't look like this April is going to be much different than the last few. The only significant rainfall event I can remember in April of 2003 involved very destructive hailstorms, especially over southwest Louisiana. One particularly intense storm, probably the most intense I can ever remember seeing on radar in southern Louisiana, dropped 4.25 inch diameter hail in Vermilion Parish, and some places got 2 or 3 hail separate storms that day. We don't need that, or the tornadoes like extreme eastern Louisiana got a couple of weeks ago, but some consistent, non-flooding rains would be nice.