Monday, June 17, 2019

What the heck was going on with the month of June 2019?

Forsyth MO. - As a layman weather observer of over twenty years, I've watched the seasons come and go in my small town down in southwest Missouri. In general, we get pretty docile and boring weather pretty much year round. Sure, there may be that surprise snowfall in February or a semi-heat wave in July or August, but for the most part the weather is pretty boring. At least, that was the case up until this spring when something changed...

Even as early as late February, I was posting warning of potential problems with rainfall and the effects that would be seen on area parks! Back then water levels were on the rise as record rainfall fell in parts of Arkansas. Up to the north, a series of snowfalls across the Central northern states also became something to watch. There was certainly a boatload of water stored in the form of snow late in the winter season. Then as March 20 came and went and we got into the start of the spring season, all that water began to melt. And, over on the Mississippi, the water began to rise.

Things went downhill from that point, such that by late April there was talk of heavy rains impacting an already soggy southern Missouri and northern Arkansas! And the rains did come and they hit all over the central tier of states! Crops were lost, rivers became engorged and it was still relatively early in the spring season. Still, in my neck of the woods, it had been a relatively normal period of time (See graphic below).
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Rainfall was pretty normal and yet the water levels in the three large reservoirs (Beaver, Table Rock and Bull Shoals continue to rise). Then in mid May, things got rather nasty as tornado outbreaks became common for a short period of time!

Interestingly, my small town of Forsyth escaped 'most' of the storm action, even as its two parks (Shadowrock and River Run) began to submerge into the debts!

That brings us to mid June and yet another anomaly. If you look at the graphic showing the month's high and lows, it was very apparent that we were having quite the cool spell.

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Wow! Four degrees below the thirty year average was pretty exception and it made me wonder what else 2019 would bring...