Well, this September symbolized all I love about the fall in Missouri. We experienced strong thunderstorms, heavy precipitation, plenty of windy days (1 out of 3 days had wind gusts >= 20 mph), and a nice cool-down that brought air as fresh and crisp as the ripe Missouri apples we've been enjoying.
An interesting fact about this September. On Sep. 19, we had a 1.18" rain that put us just over our yearly average of 41.22". Every drop of rain from here out is a surplus, which has been the norm since 2008. Last year, we hit our average yearly precip total on October 7.
Year / Amount Surplus
2008: 18.66"
2009: 17.00"
2010: 2.15" (as of 9/30)
Temperatures
It really was a tale of two seasons, and as I remarked in a previous post, the delineation between summer and fall was quite easy to notice, and can be seen on the graph below. September 24 was a good "first fall" day (although I have no quantitative formula to back that up)
Mean Temp: 69.1°
Deviation: +1.8°
Maximum: 90° on Sep. 18
Minimum: 46° on Sep. 27
Precipitation
Once again, we have been inundated with heavy precipitation. Those living in flood plains have had a rough three years, and there were many farmers in the area that lost entire fields of crops due to a late-year flood right before harvest time.
Average September: 3.68"
Actual September: 8.26" (+4.58")
Days with measurable precipitation: 13
Other Weather Info:
Days with thunder: 4
Days with fog: 9
Days with wind gust (>=20 mph): 10
Yearly Totals:
Thunder: 44
Fog: 43
Wind Gust: 58
Mows: 20
Coming Soon...Water Year 2009-2010 Summary
2 comments:
For some reason, perhaps due to your location near two of the country's largest river systems, the above average rainfall doesn't surprise me. However, the almost 40" surplus the last three years is very impressive. I will be taking a close look at the Missouri river when I am down for Turkey Day... am I sure it's much higher than a mid summer drought like stage I've witnessed before. My Father in-law lives about a mile from the river and I haven't been down to it for a couple years unfortunately. Looking forward to it.
It's been a while since I've seen the MO river below normal stage. We drive over it at Jefferson City each time we drive to my parent's house in Rolla.
The river has an interesting past, from the diary of Lewis and Clark, to the channelization that has almost completely changed it since 1912. From a conservation point of view, I would much rather it stayed in its natural form than the straight, deep river that we know today. (of course we reap many commercial benefits from its channelization)
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