If you are a gardener, farmer, or someone who just likes a luscious, green lawn, then the last few days have probably been very good to you. Rainfall has suddenly become abundant across eastern Nebraska and west Iowa, and the next few days look to continue this wet pattern.
In the first week (seven days) of July, we have seen rain accumulations of 1.00" to 2.00" generally around Omaha, and as much as 5.00" of rain nearby Norfolk, which fell basically all day Monday, July 7th. Just before the end of June, parts of central Nebraska woke up to nearly 5.00" of rain just in one day.
More rain is on the way later this week. Storms that are possible from Wednesday, July 9 to Friday, July 11 could bring an additional 1.00" to 3.00" of rainfall to the greater Omaha region, according to the ECMWF model used for Futurecast Rain Total.
We have been caught in the summer 'storm track' for a couple of weeks now, ever since the weekend of 100º heat back on June 21 and 22. This isn't uncommon, as Pacific Ocean storms coming onshore from the western United states are deflected north into the central and northern Plains of North America. As long as the summer heat ridge is not established over the central United States, Nebraska and Iowa can typically take advantage of a wetter mid-summer pattern. Right now, the summer heat ridge is focused more over Arizona and is not overly strong at this time. This should continue for another week.
As far as drought and soil moisture is concerned, we are now doing alright, given this can be a hot and dry time of year. We will get an update to this map on Thursday, which will take into account Monday night's rainfall. The recent rainy pattern has quickly replenished ponds and soil moisture over areas of central and eastern Nebraska that had reported severe to moderate drought conditions near and west of Norfolk just one month ago.
Over the last several weeks, drought and soil moisture conditions have also improved in Iowa, where the state is now reporting less than 5% of the state is in drought. This is similar to last year's data where during the summer, Iowa had reported NO drought in the entire state. If it weren't for a very dry autumn, Nebraska would probably be reporting similar conditions to Iowa. All in all, we're doing ok.
River levels are up, too. The Missouri River at Omaha is at 16.6ft. The Platte River at Ashland is at 15.7 ft as of this article. The spike you see in the Ashland graph is from the June 25th heavy rain event in east-central Nebraska.
After this wet pattern comes the week of July 20th to July 31st, which is climatologically the hottest time of the year for Omaha.
