If one looks at the latest U.S. Drought Monitor map for Indiana (Figure 1), one might scratch their head – particularly as it has been raining and the chance for severe weather is in the forecast for this weekend.
Beth Hall
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 to not fall for it. There are plenty of other things I can do outside to start prepping for spring. Perhaps I’m just anxious to liven things up a bit; break out of the winter hibernation. This past week was certainly one of those weeks. Are we passed the point of having any more freeze events? When does the last freeze event typically occur for my area? For curious readers, the Midwestern Regional Climate Center has a tool – the Freeze Date Tool (https://mrcc.purdue.edu/freeze/freezedatetool) – that can help answer this question (Figure 1). Utilizing historical observation data that has been gridded to the county level, users can select their temperature[Read More…]
Indiana has had its fair share of very cold temperatures this winter.
While our daytime highs across the state were in the upper 70s, our nighttime lows have been in the 30s (even into the upper 20s) in some places.
While our entire state did not receive the amount of rain from the remnants of Hurricane Helene compared to other states, most of Indiana did receive at least an inch of precipitation over the past few weeks with some southern counties receiving over five inches (Figure 1).
From September 19th through 25th, Indiana was fortunate to receive between a quarter inch to almost three inches of precipitation (Figure 1).
There was a brief period where forecast models were thinking that the remnants of Hurricane Francine might make its way far enough north to provide sufficient moisture to improve drought conditions across the Indiana.
Over the past several weeks, temperatures across Indiana have averaged within the normal range for this time of year. We may recall periods of extreme heat, but there were also periods that felt cooler with fall-like temperatures. Daytime maximum temperatures have averaged near normal whereas nighttime minimum temperatures have averaged slightly below normal. This has offered welcomed relief not only for livestock, pets, and humans, but has provide some much needed nighttime moisture recovery for vegetation, particularly as precipitation events have been few and far between. Abnormally dry and moderate drought conditions have gradually been expanding and intensifying almost everywhere (Figure 1). The only locations that have been mostly spared – or more likely, still benefiting for recent storm tracks – is from west-central Indiana into central Indiana (Benton and Warren counties toward Madison County). However, even those counties are starting to show stress and could soon be classified as[Read More…]
After a period of hot and humid weather where heat indices reached triple digits in some locations, we welcome cooler than normal temperatures for the next several days. It is still summer, though, so sweaters, mittens, and scarves will not be necessary! There were a few temperature records broken over the August 5-6, 2024, period, but surprisingly none otherwise across Indiana. What a nice reminder that we are usually hot and humid this time of year! In fact, the July 2024 average daily temperature (as well as the average daily maximum and minimum temperatures) were very close to normal. Does this mean global climate change is not real? Absolutely not! The key word there is “global” and while the average temperatures for the month were near normal, the variability and extremes illustrate how much the atmosphere has been agitated. Which brings us to precipitation. July’s precipitation was well above normal[Read More…]
Several weeks ago, Indiana received enough rain to eliminate drought across the state, leaving behind just a few counties in Abnormally Dry (D0) status. Fortunately, this week has been relatively quiet, allowing many areas to alleviate flooding issues. The U.S. Drought Monitor kept those Abnormally Dry areas nearly the same this week (Figure 1), so how might things change? Will this recent dry period re-introduce Moderate Drought (D1) and/or expand those Abnormally Dry areas? Or will more rain keep Indiana in a more normal situation where precipitation passes through every few days, separated by typical Midwest hot and humid conditions? First, it is important to review what has been happening across our state. Over the past two weeks, Figure 2 shows that most of Indiana has receive above-normal precipitation except for southeastern and southern Indiana. However, even those locations are within one inch of normal amounts (based on the 1991-2020[Read More…]
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