Wichita wrapped up one of its wettest Aprils ever with a soggy sayonara: 6.81 inches of rain fell in the last five days of the month, hoisting the total for April to 9.94 inches.
That’s 7.37 inches above normal, and left 2009 second only to 1944 in April rainfall.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was wrapping up his third term in the White House and the Allies were preparing for the invasion of Normandy when 12.42 inches of April rain fell in Wichita 65 years ago.
Torrential rain in the Pretty Prairie area this morning – 1.75 inches in 45 minutes – has prompted the National Weather Service to issue a flood warning for southeastern Reno County.
The basin most affected by the rainfall will be the north fork of the Ninnescah River.
Expect more episodes like this over the next several days, forecasters warn.
This little tidbit will surprise almost no one, but I wanted to share it nonetheless.
The 5.10 inches of rain that fell Sunday set a record for most rain in Wichita on April 26. The old record was no slouch for Kansas – 1.88 inches in 1969 – but Sunday’s rainfall would have set the mark for every day in the month except April 22, when 6.03 inches fell in 1944.
Wichita is now well above normal for rainfall this calendar year, silencing the murmurs of discontent about a dry winter.
But it’ll take another 3 inches to qualify for wettest April in Wichita history. As saturated as the soils are, nobody will be thinking about the record book if another 3 inches falls over the next two days. They’ll be far more interested in high ground instead.
The official rainfall total for Wichita over the past 24 hours will be 6.05 inches, since that is what was recorded at the official site next to Mid-Continent Airport as of 7 a.m., officials said.
Other rainfall totals include 5.21 inches in far west Wichita; 6.54 inches from Saturday night through 7 a.m. Monday in Willowbend, and more than 6 inches in Andover.
Here are more rainfall totals from the region, courtesy of the National Weather Service:
Conway Springs, 4.34
El Dorado, 3.84
Hutchinson, 1.45
Inman, 1.65
Cassoday, 4.31
Anthony, 6.55
Arkansas City, .48
Winfield, .16
Wellington, .73
Rosalia, 3.95
Potwin, 5.08
Oxford, .90
Mdison, 3.80
Newton, 3.35
Lindsborg, 3.92
McPherson, 2.22
Hillsboro, 3
Goessel, 3.67
Chase, 2.52
Smolan, 2.25
…is 53.82 inches, Chance Hayes of the National Weather Service told me today. That includes rain, melted snow and ice.
That’s an all-time record for Wichita, and will be the number all future precipitation totals will be measured against.
The National Weather Service office in Wichita has offered five finalists:
The powerful thunderstorms of April 7-8, which hammered Butler and Harvey counties with straight-line winds of between 90 and 100 miles an hour.
A series of powerful thunderstorms on May 1, which produced no large tornadoes but affected most of the 26 counties in the Wichita branch’s coverage area.
The strongest tornado of the year hit the south side of Salina and surrounding rural areas on the night of June 11. The tornado had a 14-mile track and an maximum strength of EF3 as it tore through portions of Salina shortly before 10 p.m.
The same storm system produced tornadoes that slammed into Chapman, Manhattan and Soldier, killing two people and causing more than $40 million in damage. A woman was killed in Chapman and a man killed in Soldier. Here’s a photo of the Chapman tornado, taken by Scott Blair near I-70.
The weather event foremost in Wichita’s mind from 2008 is likely the torrential rains that dropped more than 10 inches of rain on the city over a 24-hour period on Sept. 12. That easily surpassed the old record set in 1911. Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of the record-setting rain was the fact that flooding was pretty limited.
The list does not include a tornado that killed two people on U.S. 400 near Pratt on May 23, because that occurred just outside of Wichita’s coverage area, warning coordination meteorologist Chance Hayes said.
What’s your choice for the biggest local weather story of 2008?
My vote would go for the tornadoes that hit Chapman, Manhattan and Soldier, because of the high price paid, with an honorable mention to the record-setting rain.
It rained like never before in Wichita in 2008.
The city recorded its highest annual rainfall total in history this year – 52.91 inches as of Christmas Eve – and also its heaviest rainfall over a 24-hour period: 10.31 inches on September 12, which easily outdistanced the previous 24-hour record of 7.99 inches in September 1911.
50.72 inches.
That’s the record for most rain in one year in Wichita – set this year – and it’s about to climb. Rain is expected in the city over the next few days.
National Weather Service meteorologist Kevin Darmofal said Wichita could get a half-inch or more by the time skies clear on Thursday.
“We’ll just keep adding” to the record, he said.
On my way out to the family farm this week, I saw first-hand how a couple days of rain can have a wide-ranging impact on the fortunes of those who grow crops for a living.
The hearty soaking was a blessing for farmers who only recently planted their winter wheat. But many fields where the wheat had already sprouted had vast ponds where the rainwater pooled…and by the time the water evaporates that wheat may well be drowned out.
Farmers who have already been able to harvest their corn and soybeans have to be delighted with the rain this week, even as neighbors whose crops weren’t quite ready for the combine now must wait for the fields to dry – a wait that could well reduce yields and ultimately profits.
One field of soybeans looked especially forlorn, the brittle brown stalks loaded with beans but the ground far too soft for heavy equipment. I wondered what would be salvagable by the time harvesters arrived.
It reminded me of something I heard from my father and other farmers countless times over the years: you can do everything right for a crop, but you’re still at the mercy of the weather.
The remnants of Tropical Storm Lowell are rewriting Wichita’s record book.
The record for most rain in a 24-hour period in Wichita was 7.99 inches on Sept. 6-7, 1911. As of 1 p.m. today, 8.27 inches of rain had fallen….in just 12 hours. That number will climb, too.
“We’re not done yet” with the rain, National Weather Service meteorology intern Jerilyn Billings said.
Talk about an unwanted record……