Last winter, earth was in a La Niña phase. While the relationships between El Niño – Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phases and Midwest climate are not strong, historically the La Niña phase has been weakly associated with milder and wetter winters. Timing is everything, though, and winters are climatologically defined as December, January, and February. When[Read More…]
Beth Hall
A lack of abundant precipitation over the past month has caused abnormally dry conditions to expand across Indiana this week with several counties in central Indiana intensifying to the Moderate Drought stage of the US Drought Monitor (Figure 1). Some intense weather systems passed through the state this week (Figure 2), however, this was not[Read More…]
Well, it was a nice 4 weeks with no drought or abnormally dry designated areas across the state. Unfortunately, the lack of rain over the past few weeks have led to browning lawns, cracked soils, and other tell-tale signs that drought may be returning. The US Drought Monitor has designated three areas in Indiana as[Read More…]
After three consecutive weeks of Indiana being drought free according to the US Drought Monitor, it looks like next month is favored to be drier than normal and cooler than normal. That does not necessarily imply drought is expected to return since rain events may still occur. However, the predicted amounts of rain are low,[Read More…]
It is amazing to think that some part of Indiana has been in at least the Abnormally Dry category of drought on the US Drought Monitor for over a year. While it has not always been the same parts of the state, certainly northern Indiana has been the most consistently dry. Recently, however, the state[Read More…]
As we welcome July, Indiana seems to be in a very wet phase. Or, at least part of the state has been. The jet stream – a narrow band of fast-flowing air near the altitudes where commercial jets fly – naturally meanders in a north-south-north ribbon around the hemispheres. Typically, these “ribbons” also shift eastward[Read More…]
The news of the disastrous drought and extreme heat in the western United States (US) have local folks wondering if Indiana might be next. The latest release of the US Drought Monitor map (Figure 1) shows the exceptional drought in the western states as well as the expansion of extreme and exceptional drought in the[Read More…]
The month of May in Indiana was 2°F-4°F below normal across the state, based upon the new 1991-2020 climatological normals that were released last month. Climatological normals are roughly the 30-year average of weather variables and are updated every 10 years. Prior to the new normals being released, climatologists were using the 1981-2010 period for[Read More…]
Abnormally dry conditions are still lingering in parts of Indiana (Figure 1) with interest growing on how much the warmer weather might exacerbate the situation. Fortunately, the climate outlooks for the next several weeks and through June are favoring above-normal precipitation (in addition to above-normal temperatures), so hopefully any dry periods will be short lived.[Read More…]
It seems the weather pattern may have shifted toward wetter conditions. Over the past week, Indiana has received over an inch of rain and the 7-day forecast is predicting at least another inch (Figure 1) in the central and southern parts of the state. The northern counties of Indiana, that have been in the Abnormally[Read More…]