April showers part of 2023 precipitation excess

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) – We have entered into another rainy stretch across northeast Indiana and northwest Ohio. If you remember last month, we had a rainy stretch of five days straight in Fort Wayne from March 22nd to March 26th. We saw a total of 2.35 inches of rain fall over the course of those five days, including 1.25 inches on the 23rd. We have the potential to add up more rain Friday through Tuesday as we end April and transition into May.

We picked over two inches of rain during this five day stretch back in March.

So far this year, we’ve picked up just shy of 13.50 inches of precipitation. This means we are running over 2.50 inches above average.

We have a precipitation surplus so far this year.

This surplus of precipitation has been very beneficial because we carried drought conditions over from 2022 into 2023. However, we were quickly able to bust the drought conditions locally this year and we’re not currently experiencing any drought in our section of the country. However, there are significant, exceptional drought conditions found in the Great Plains region to our west. There is some concern we’ll see these conditions expand eastward in the coming months, as the weather service expressed concerns about last year. We will just have to watch and see what develops. In the meantime, we’ll relish in getting more moisture from April showers.

Examining the Meteorological Spring precipitation total, we’ve now picked up over 6.50 inches of precipitation. This is just about a quarter of an inch above average, so we are on track with our springtime precipitation.

We are slightly above average in terms of spring precipitation.

However, that total is a little deceptive, as a good chunk of it came in March. Here is a breakdown of the precipitation totals we have seen by month so far this year.

March has seen the most precipitation so far this year.

Focusing on April, we’ve picked up 1.70 inches of precipitation so far through 28 days, all of which has fallen as rain. This is 1.79 inches below average, which differs from every other month to start the year. January, February, and March all ended with above average precipitation totals. The last two days would have to be a real washout to make up this deficit. We expect a soggy end to the month, but approaching two inches of additional rain is not looking to be in the cards.