We finally broke a 17 day rainless streak across the greater Milwaukee area on Tuesday. But the rain amounts were meager. Milwaukee officially picked up .11" of rain. Prior to that we had a rainfall accumulating to .22" on May 19th. In between it's been bone dry. Even prior to that and after the snowy March rain has been lackluster. Take a look at the last two months:
As the weekly drought monitor comes in each week on Thursday, it's no surprise we have growing drought conditions. Speaking further on the last two months you can see how rain is lacking in your hometown.
Some locations are now down over five inches on rainfall during a time when we generally pick up the most rain of the year. June averages 4.38" of rain, the most of any month. And sure while rain comes and goes and doesn't always follow an exact daily average, the lack of wet weather this early in the growing season is starting to cause some real issues for farmers and our yards and gardens too. Recently we've had a blocking pattern where high pressure has been stubborn overhead. It's made for lovely weather to enjoy to outdoors, but we really need the rain. The good news is that we are now looking at several days in a row where rain is possible, if not likely! Starting Saturday afternoon, scattered rain and storms will march in. This activity looks to transition to more of a rainy outlook on Sunday as an upper level low cuts off from the main flow and that will lead to a more prolonged period where rain could still linger Monday into early Tuesday. That should give us a big enough window time wise where a solid inch of rainfall will be possible during this stretch.
Let's hope this pans out so we can put a halt on further drought conditions.
I'm meteorologist Rebecca Schuld
