WESTSIDE -- The three-quarter-inch rain northwest Benton County received Monday, Sept. 1, cooled the air and revived lawns and vegetation which are suffering from an extended drought.
But it will take about a dozen similar "showers" to erase the almost 11-inch moisture deficit accumulated during the first eight months of 2014.
Total moisture recorded at the NOAA weather station in Gravette through August totals a miserly 19.45 inches. This compares with the average 30.32 inches normally received during the first eight months of the year.
The normal average annual rainfall in Gravette is 44.87 inches, according to records kept for the local NOAA station. But figures for the area can be deceiving.
Portions of adjoining McDonald County last week received up to four inches of rain. Not a measurable drop was recorded in Gravette, just a few miles distant.
Dry and hot years are common in the region, with conditions unpredictable from one year to the next, as shown by comparative information from the past four years. How the two factors combine or interact determine the drought conditions and the length of their duration.
In 2010, for instance, the Gravette station recorded 29.33 inches of moisture through the month of August. There were 20 one-hundred-degree days that summer, 18 of them in August, when less than a half-inch of moisture was recorded. More than 10 inches of rain were recorded during May and another eight inches in September. The year ended with a .72-inch surplus.
The following year, 2011, contrasted sharply as 39.11 inches of precipitation were recorded during the first eight months of the year. That included 15 inches in April and 10 inches in May. That year also saw 38 one-hundred-degree days, 24 of them in August, including a record tying 114 degrees on August 3. Drought conditions were evident but, in contrast, the year ended with 55.08 inches of moisture, a 10-inch surplus.
The year 2012 combined both heat and drought as there were 30 hundred-degree days during June and July followed by seven in August. The rainfall through August totaled 20.30, a deficit of 10.02 inches, comparable to this year. The year ended with 33.17 inches, a record challenging deficit of 11.7 inches.
Last year proved to be a moist, cool year with no hundred-degree days. Moisture totaled 40.45 inches during the first eight months of the year; 6.66 inches fell during August. The year ended with 53.25 inches, a more than eight-inch surplus. Both April and May provided at least seven inches of rain and July and August more than six.
This year, 2014, has been relatively cool, with only three hundred-degree days during August. Scattered showers and rainfall, which helped lawns and crops weather the 10.86 deficit, mostly accumulated during July and August. Total for the first eight months is a miserly 19.46 inches, almost six inches recorded during June.
How much rainfall is needed to overcome this growing 10-plus-inch deficit?
The rainfall Sept. 1 and 2 will help. Only Mother Nature holds the answer or reason for this and for the varied and unusual weather conditions that have occurred throughout the nation during 2014. And who can out-guess Mother Nature?
General News on 09/03/2014