Kansas continues to be drought-free, but the pattern has shifted. There was rain during the week of May 31 – June 6, but much less than the previous week. The heaviest rainfall occurred in two pockets in the southern part of the state. One area was in southwest Kansas, centering on Clark County and edging into Meade and Comanche counties. The second was in the Southeastern Division, centering in Chautauqua County. The greatest weekly total for the week ending on June 6 was 2.36 inches reported at the NWS Coop Station at Hale, in Chautauqua County. The greatest weekly total in the CoCoRaHS network was 2.30 inches at Kismet 0.1 W in Seward County. The statewide average precipitation for the week was 0.41 inches which was 41 percent of normal or 0.61 inches short for the week. This dry pattern has resulted in much needed drying of the soil surface and allowed for resumption of field work.
Temperatures during the week of May 31 – June 6 started on a cool note, but gave way to warmer-than-normal conditions, with high humidity. The weekly statewide average temperature was -0.6 degrees cooler than normal. The greatest average negative departure from normal was in the North Central Division where temperatures average 68.4 degrees F, or 3.1 degrees cooler than normal. The greatest average positive departure was in the Northeast Division where temperatures averaged 70.3 degrees F, or 0.8 degrees warmer than normal.
The 8- to 14-day outlook suggests continuation of drier-than-average conditions statewide. Temperatures are expected to be warmer than normal for the period as well. The short-term seven-day precipitation forecast suggests that the heaviest rains will be in the North Central Division, where as much as two-and-a-half inches are expected. Amounts drop as you move south, with the rest of the state expected to receive between an inch-and-a-half to just a quarter of an inch.
Additional information can be found in the latest Agronomy eUpdate at https://webapp.agron.ksu.edu/agr_social/eu.throck or on the Kansas Climate web under weekly maps
http://climate.k-state.edu/maps/weekly/2016
Mary Knapp, Weather Data Library
mknapp@ksu.edu