Indiana saw a lot of precipitation the early part of this past week with rainfall totals ranging from 0.5” or greater in the northern and far southwestern counties to over 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 amounts from volunteer CoCoRaHS observers – illustrating how valuable their contributions are to precipitation monitoring. CoCoRaHS – which stands for Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow network – is a volunteer, citizen science program where anyone with interest in the weather and providing data to a larger community can sign up to take daily precipitation observations and report findings online or through a mobile map. Data is then collected nationally and made publicly available for the public to see and use. Programs such as the National Weather Service, state climatologists, emergency managers, and local communities use the data to better improve forecast models, assess where flooding risks may be highest, among other things. If you see that there is already an observer near your location, don’t let that discourage you from signing us. Precipitation can be highly variable over very short distances, so there are never too many observers! To learn more about this wonderful data science program that you can join, please visit the CoCoRaHS website and/or email me at bethhall@purdue.edu.
This rain has helped alleviate most Indiana drought concerns with streams returning to normal flow levels (some may still be flooding), groundwater levels seeing improvements, and vegetation hopefully thriving. Figure 2 shows the latest map from the U.S. Drought Monitor for data through Tuesday morning (i.e., does not include any additional rainfall after 8 AM Eastern Time). Only southwestern counties are considered Abnormally Dry (D0) with a very small area along the Ohio River in Moderate Drought (D1) when both long-term and short-term indicators were considered.
While we enter May and look forward to warmer temperatures, there are still risks for frost/freeze events, particularly in low-lying areas and with a northward preference. Current climate outlooks are indicating a slight risk for a frost/freeze event next week. Keep an eye on the forecasts in case there is any vulnerable vegetation that may need some extra protection.
Figure 1. Rainfall totals from the morning of April 27th through the morning of April 29th, 2026.
Figure 2. U.S. Drought Monitor categories that considered data through 8 AM EDT Tuesday, April 28th.
