State Climate Office discusses current drought conditions

Parts of Kentucky have progressed into reasonable drought, in response to the most recent United States Drought Monitor launched on Thursday. Roughly one-third of the state is categorized as reasonable drought with a further 50% of the state in abnormally dry situations.  

Kentucky’s statewide common rainfall for June is 4.72 inches, with only some Kentucky Mesonet stations assembly that threshold. Apart from the deficit, the bigger situation is the distribution of rain – each spatially and temporally. Many areas of southern and central Kentucky didn’t measure any precipitation following the June 6 occasion that drenched areas with over 3.5 inches of rain. Northern and jap Kentucky skilled further rounds of rain that has efficiently stored the areas out of abnormally dry or reasonable drought.

The mixture of close to file excessive temperatures and lack of rainfall created the right setup for a speedy intensification of drought. The timing of this within the rising season is leading to doubtlessly important impacts in agriculture. The soil, air, and crops are all thirsty for any moisture obtainable. There are some rain probabilities from scattered showers and thunderstorms over the vacation weekend, however it’s not a assure that there might be widespread aid of the dry situations.

As a service to the Commonwealth, the State Local weather Workplace of Kentucky, a division of the Kentucky Local weather Heart at WKU, hosts a month-to-month webinar on drought and hydrologic situations on the primary Thursday of each month at 1 p.m. Central time (2 p.m. Japanese time) along side the Midwestern Drought Early Warning System. If you want to take part in future webinars, ship an e mail to kyclimate@wku.edu with the phrases Month-to-month Webinar within the topic line.

Interim Kentucky State Climatologist Megan Schargorodski might be main the upcoming webinar on Thursday, July 7, with a radical overview of latest situations and local weather outlook. You possibly can view the webinar on the Kentucky Local weather Heart YouTube channel at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDg3h8leOZa0wHap90rX5Rw

Contact: Megan Schargorodski, kyclimate@wku.edu or 270-745-4568