One heat wave down, more to come.  It is summer, though, so aside from expecting plenty of hot days, the things to be more concerned about is reference (or potential) evapotranspiration (ET) significantly exceeding precipitation that would ultimately cause drought-related impacts.  The National Weather Service provides a 7-day forecasted reference ET product as well as a 7-day forecast for total precipitation amounts.  From these resources, it looks like across Indiana, approximately 1.5” of water is expected to be lost over the next 7 days and anywhere from 0.10” to up to 1.5” of precipitation will be received (Figure 1).  This implies a water deficit for most areas – which is not unusual throughout Indiana summers.  The concern comes when that deficit becomes much greater than normal. Concerning drought, the U.S. Drought Monitor continues to place northwestern Indiana in the Abnormally Dry (D0) category with two isolated areas within that zone[Read More…]