So far the atmosphere this month has not been too kind in producing widespread substantial rainfall as the boundary layer moisture from the gulf has been marginal to OK but the temperatures aloft have been a little on the warm side. Here is the rainfall during the past 7 days ending this morning....
Precipitation totals the past 30 days sure shows pretty much the same area of dryness that has persisted since the fall....
The system moving into the central plains today and this weekend will help generate more hail and wind but also rainfall that should be more widespread than recently. Additional chances will exist later next week too, which is obviously good. Here is the outlook through next Friday (including rain from tonight)...
That area across west Texas and parts of the Texas Panhandle looks intriguing. That might be related to the sub-tropical jet that I discussed a couple of months ago. I'll keep watching that for signs of helping the rest of the high plains.
As far as easing the drought, not so much, at least yet. Here is the latest drought monitor for the country....
Looking at the satellite image, the flow aloft (jetstream) is really disorganized in general (at least for May standards).
That might also be a reason for substantial rainfall that has not been necessarily widespread. One good thing I guess is there has not been exceedingly hot temperatures (upper 90s into the 100s) as one might expect with dryness overall.
I'm still seeing just a small glimmer of hope that overall wetness may increase in June. But there is still nagging signs that overall precipitation will remain generally less than normal. I've had occasional thoughts of a 2011 summer. I'm not calling that yet, but if things don't turnaround a bit by early June then it's something to consider. More later....
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