Two triggers for rain today. A big upper level system grazing mainly the eastern half of the state early, and a cold front at the surface that should move through a little after midnight. That will close the faucet again for the work week, unfortunately. Today’s potential precipitation isn’t impressive: between a tenth and a third of an inch over most of the state.
Here’s the Monday morning rain scoreboard.
Indianapolis International Airport 15.11 inches
Pensacola Florida Regional Airport 15.08 inches
Oh, by the way: our total is the entire year. Pensacola? This past weekend.
A record 13.11″ of rain fell there on Saturday alone. That’s a lot, even for Florida. It was their second wettest single day on record. The weekend total was TWENTY-ONE inches at a reporting station on that city’s west side!
They could have another 2-4 inches today. Same deal in Georgia and the Carolinas. Of course, these are all places under a drought much worse than ours, especially in Georgia.
Indy, Muncie, South Bend and Lafayette are all generally around 4 inches behind on year-to-date precipitation, but in Shelbyville it’s more like six inches.
The deficit is 7 and a half inches in Terre Haute, and over 9 inches in Shelbyville.
The driest spot? Southwest Indiana. Evansville is over 11 inches behind on precip this year.
It was big-time dry Saturday. How dry? Beautiful blue sky, very comfortable, and very warm. Throw in the Rockies, and we’re in Colorado.
How dry? The afternoon relative humidity was running around 30 percent, and the “heat index” was running BELOW the actual temperature.
How dry? Thirty degree temp swings were not uncommon Saturday. Terre Haute had a morning low of 54 and a high of 90…a 36 degree spread.
COAST TO COAST:
Severe weather today should be confined to southern Missouri, Arkansas, Eastern Oklahoma, the extreme northeast corner of Texas. A second area could develop in northern Texas and northeastern New Mexico.
Along with the Gulf coast flooding, three tornadoes were reported in southeast Alabama yesterday, as well as hail and damaging wind from Minnesota through Iowa down into northeast Kansas.
INDY ALMANAC:
The normal high today is 81. The average low is 61. Records are 96 and 41. Sunrise comes at 6:17 and the sun doesn’t set until 9:13.
UV INDEX:
7 (High.)
POLLEN COUNT:
Indy is in “low-medium” territory today, then falls slightly to “low” Tuesday. We jump back to “medium” Wednesday and Thursday.
DETAILED INDIANAPOLIS FORECAST:
Today: Mostly to partly cloudy. Muggy, with a chance of scattered showers and thunderstorms. High 82.
Tonight: Scattered showers and storms likely, mainly in the evening. Low 65.
Tuesday: Becoming mostly sunny. High 81.
Tuesday Night: Mostly clear. Low 55.
Wednesday: Mostly sunny. High 78.
Wednesday Night: Mostly clear. Low 58.
Thursday: Mostly sunny. High 82.
Thursday Night: Mostly clear. Low 61.
Friday: Sunny. High 86.
Friday Night: Mostly clear. Low 66.
Saturday: Sunny. High 88.
Saturday Night: Mostly clear. Low 67.
Sunday: Partly sunny. High 85.