Beth Hall

163 articles by this author

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A lot of rain before a break comes

August 14, 2026 - From Issue:
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There was a period earlier this year when southern Indiana was getting all the rain.  Flooding was a concern. The rest of Indiana was hoping for their share. Then this week happened. A lot of rain has fallen almost everywhere but southern Indiana.  Perhaps this will provide some time for those down south to assess if things have returned to normal, or if there are now visible indicators of abnormally dry or even moderate drought developing.  There is still some rain (not a lot) expected in these regions so hopefully that will keep either moisture extreme (drought or flooding) from happening. Then, there’s the rest of Indiana.  Locations in eastern Indiana have reported over 6 inches of rain within 24 hours!  Over the past few days, amounts across northern and eastern Indiana have totaled from 3” to almost 10” (Figure 1).  There are several locations (e.g., Delaware County) that reported[Read More…]

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Spotty rain keeps drought away

August 7, 2026 - From Issue:
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Abnormally Dry (“D0” in the U.S. Drought Monitor [USDM]) conditions were starting to develop in several areas across northern Indiana by the end of July.  However, intermittent, spotty rain events as July transitioned to August seemed to occur in many of those places suggesting conditions were returning to normal.  Therefore, the only area of the state that is still considered Abnormally Dry is in the northeastern counties (Figure 1).  Periods of dryness are not uncommon, particular over the summer when warmer temperatures can accelerate evapotranspiration.  The challenge becomes assessing whether the drier periods are normal or abnormal.  For now, most of Indiana seems to be more normal.  Will this last? The rain forecast over the next 7 days (through August 14th) is predicting a chance of rain every day.  Those chances may range from 10% to over 80%.  This is often tricky to interpret.  If it does not rain in[Read More…]

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Dry conditions in the forecast – drought developing?

July 24, 2026 - From Issue:
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Aside from southern and far northern Indiana, the rest of the state has generally received below normal precipitation over the past 30 days (Figure 1).  While only a few localized areas show percentages below the 30 percent-of-normal level (one of the factors considered to recommend the Abnormally Dry (D0) classification to the U.S. Drought Monitor authors), other factors are suggesting something may be developing.  A challenge has been the very spotty nature of heavy precipitation events in the broad region that has caused localized flooded areas nearby areas that seem to keep missing out.  The Indiana state drought monitoring team has also been looking at other factors such as evapotranspiration, soil moisture, stream and lake levels, and groundwater levels.  Several of those factors did suggest the area was already abnormally dry so without significant additional precipitation most of Indiana is likely to enter the D0 category soon.  Rumors will start[Read More…]

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An impressive amount of rain

May 1, 2026 - From Issue:
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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[Read More…]

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