Indiana saw a lot of precipitation in the early part of this past week, with rainfall totals of 0.5” or more in northern and far southwestern counties and more than 5” in south-central Indiana.  In fact, an observer just south of Bedford, IN, reported a combined total of 5.80”!  Figure 1 shows the 2-day total…Read more about An Impressive Amount of Rain[Read More]

Soil temperatures are often a guide for various timing decisions in agriculture.  In the spring, once soil temperature (often at 4” depths) is sustained above a particular threshold (e.g., 50°F), field preparations and planting can progress, for example.  Temperatures may also relate to pest and weed emergence. The Midwestern Regional Climate Center, in partnership with…Read more about A Look at Soil temperature Climatology[Read More]

Indiana has exceeded its previous maximum duration record of 46 weeks in drought (since May 20, 2025) since the U.S. Drought Monitor (USDM) began in 2000. The previous record was 44 consecutive weeks.  This was a bit of a surprise when I saw it, since it includes the 2012 drought and multiple other drought periods…Read more about An Impressive Amount of Rain[Read More]

One heat wave down, more to come.  It is summer, though, so aside from expecting plenty of hot days, the primary concern is that reference (or potential) evapotranspiration (ET) significantly exceeds precipitation, which would ultimately lead to drought-related impacts.  The National Weather Service provides a 7-day forecast reference ET product as well as a 7-day…Read more about More Heat on the Way[Read More]

Welcome to the start of Hurricane Season, which runs from June through November each year.  Why would Indiana care about hurricane season?  Certainly, by the time any hurricane might impact the state, it will have been greatly downgraded to what is called an extratropical (i.e., poleward of the Tropic of Cancer (23.5° north latitude)) storm…Read more about It’s a Hazy Shade of …. June[Read More]

The last few weeks have been on the drier side, particularly for northwestern and west-central Indiana (Figure 1).  While temperatures have been seasonal, they are still gradually increasing as we approach summer.  Therefore, evapotranspiration rates are starting to increase.  This has resulted in the U.S. Drought Monitor classifying much of northern Indiana as Abnormally Dry…Read more about A Bit of Rain Coming Our Way[Read More]

Indiana has already experienced several tornadoes this year, with more certainly to come.  Of course, this is not unusual since Indiana is often considered on the far northeastern edge of “Tornado Alley”.  Tornadoes get their energy from the battle between the cooler, drier Canadian air moving southeastward and the warmer, more humid air coming north…Read more about Tracking Tornadoes Over Time[Read More]

It happens every year. A warm wave moves into the area, and I immediately get the urge to run to the nursery and start planting for the spring. Of course, there is another little voice inside my head warning me not to fall for it. There are plenty of other things I can do outside…Read more about A False Sense of Spring?[Read More]

How often have you heard that your neighbor received rain while you missed it? Precipitation is highly variable and has significant impacts on communities. Insufficient rainfall can cause drought and water supply issues, while excessive rain can lead to flooding and damage to infrastructure. The dense precipitation measurements provided by the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail,…Read more about Expanding Precipitation Observations in Indiana[Read More]

While our daytime highs across the state have been in the upper 70s, our nighttime lows have been in the 40s. This is a great time to start thinking about the timing of the first frost and freeze events of the season when the 7-day average 4-inch soil temperature falls before 50°F, and the viability…Read more about A Chill Is In The Air – Online Tools for Monitoring and Climatology[Read More]