State Avoiding Drought Despite Hot Conditions

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Published on July 15 2016 2:57 pm
Last Updated on July 15 2016 3:02 pm
Written by Greg Sapp

The warm start to the year was enough of a scorcher to put the past six months in the record books.

The statewide temperature from January through June averaged 49.7 degrees, 2.8 degrees above normal, which makes it the 7th warmest first half of the year on record, according to Jim Angel, state climatologist with the Illinois State Water Survey.

The highest monthly temperature averages so far this year were 6.6 degrees above average in March, 3.8 degrees above average in February and 3.3 degrees above average in June. The only month off that trend so far this year was May, which was .4 of a degree cooler than normal.

Precipitation in the state so far this year has been on the dry side, but not to the extent often associated with high temperature events.

Precipitation from January through June averaged 16.24 inches statewide, 3.59 inches below normal, which makes it the 26th driest first half of the year on record.

So how has much of the state been able to avoid drought conditions (recent rains eased moderate drought conditions in the west and south) despite above average warmth?

At least a couple factors played a part.

“We would’ve had more drought problems in 2016, except that precipitation in November and December 2015 was 6 inches above normal, leaving soils saturated and rivers, streams and wells fully recharged,” Angel said.

A slow transition from El Nino to La Nina conditions, which often bring warm/dry conditions to the Midwest in the summer, also could play a role.

“The fact that La Nina didn’t come is one of the saving graces to the crop so far this year,” Michael Clark, ag meteorologist with BAMwx.com, told the RFD Radio Network during the McLean County Farm Bureau’s agronomy day.

“We’re kind of neutral right now,” he continued. “That plays a huge role in the pattern, although there are a lot of other pattern drivers.”