Southern Indiana took the lion’s share of precipitation in April with some locations getting over twice the amount of rain than normal for that month. Northern Indiana was a bit drier with amounts ranging from half of what is typical for April to near normal. However, since May began, conditions have been drying out throughout central, west-central, and far northwest Indiana. While there has been continued hope that Indiana could finally be free of not only drought but even ‘Abnormally Dry (D0)’ conditions, alas that D0 area persists and has started to expand (Figure 1).
Figure 1. U.S. Drought Monitor status for conditions as of Tuesday, May 6, 2025.
April temperatures were near normal in most locations with slightly above-normal values (by 1-3 degrees) in the southwestern quadrant of the state. May has started slightly cooler than normal in southern and northwestern counties with the rest of the state mostly near normal. However, when considering temperature with respect to modified growing degree day accumulations since April 15th, conditions have been slightly above normal, particularly in the central and eastern parts of the state (Figures 2 and 3).
Figure 2. Modified growing degree day (50°F / 86°F) accumulation from April 15 – May 7, 2025.
Figure 3. Modified growing degree day (50°F / 86°F) accumulation from April 15-May 7, 2025, represented as the departure from the 1991-2020 climatological average.
Climate outlooks over the next 6-14 days (May 13-21) are strongly favoring above-normal temperature and slightly favoring near-normal (early in that period) to above-normal (later in that period) precipitation. Therefore, it is quite likely that Indiana has already seen its last hard freeze of the season so we can look forward to lots of lawn mowing, allergies, and insects from here on out. Additionally, with temperatures rising, evapotranspiration rates will start to rapidly increase, drying out surface moisture if only a little precipitation falls. The national Climate Prediction Center released its updated monthly outlook for May on April 30th. At that time, models were favoring above-normal temperatures and slightly favoring below-normal precipitation. The next monthly and seasonal climate outlooks will be released next Thursday, April 15th.
