After a variety of severe weather in recent weeks, including tornadoes, heavy rain, hail and flooding, the state climatologist says August should be a little more on the calm side for Nebraska. Al Dutcher says long-range forecasts for the month ahead look generally decent.
Dutcher says, “We could see some repeat performances of some of the periods that we’d seen during May and June when we had some very widespread heavy precipitation events, but flooding should not be such a major issue as the crops are extracting moisture out of the profile.” The likelihood for an extremely hot spell during August is pretty much diminished, Dutcher says, and there’s no drought being predicted, at least for southeast Nebraska.
“We’re glad in some respects to see this moisture ease off somewhat because we were really sitting on the potential in the middle of June to see continued flood events similiar to what we experienced in 1993,” Dutcher says. The rains have eased off enough to where the crops are finally growing, he adds, and many are doing very well. As for the heat during the month ahead, we’re still in summer so it’ll be hot, but Dutcher says it shouldn’t be unbearable.
“With these above-normal moisture levels and higher relative humidity levels, you’re really capping yourself in the lower 90s to mid-90s,” Dutcher says, “although your evenings and your overnight hours tend to be much warmer because the amount of water in the atmosphere does limit how cool the air can get at night.” Dutcher says that will mean less variability in temperatures.
Thanks to Alisa Nelson, KLIN, Lincoln