FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) – While some parts of the area have seen rainfall within the past week or so, the Fort Wayne International Airport has been bone dry for more than two weeks prior to Tuesday. That appears to be changing, though. Rain moved through the area during the late afternoon and evening hours Tuesday. As of 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, a trace of rainfall was picked up.

Officially, we went 16 days with no rain in Fort Wayne. Our stretch of no measurable rainfall however continues and currently sits at 17 days, if you count the trace of rainfall recorded on May 20th.

Fort Wayne went over two weeks without rain prior to Tuesday.

This means we’ve seen no rainfall at all since May 20th and only a trace of rainfall since May 19th prior to Tuesday. Non-measurable rainfall is defined as a trace of rainfall or less. For rain to officially be measured, we must see greater than or equal to 0.01 inches.

Non-measurable rainfall is defined as a trace or less.

The longest we’ve ever gone with no rainfall at all in Fort Wayne was 21 days. This happened in May of 1977. If you include a trace of rainfall, the longest we’ve ever gone without any measurable rainfall was 41 days. This happened all the way back in 1908 from August to September of that year.

  • 21 days is our longest stretch with no rain in Fort Wayne.
  • 41 days is our longest stretch with no measurable rain in Fort Wayne.

Our 16 day stretch with no rain tied for the ninth longest dry spell in Fort Wayne’s history. Our 17 day stretch with no measurable rain currently ties us for the 39th longest such stretch. Our next best rain chance does not come until Sunday. Should dry conditions have continued all the way through Saturday, that would have tied us for the longest stretch with no rain at all, but we still have the opportunity to tie the eleventh longest streak if a trace or less of rain continues to be recorded before Sunday…

We end tied for the ninth longest dry spell and are currently experiencing the 39th longest dry stretch with no measurable rain in Fort Wayne.

Despite a little bit of rainfall, we’re seeing drought conditions develop across the area. Here is the drought monitor update released on Thursday last week. These conditions are current as of Tuesday, May 30th. We’ll get an update to these conditions on Thursday this week and we expect this map to look worse.

Part of the area is ‘abnormally dry’ on the drought monitor.

You can track the latest changes to the forecast by visiting our WANE 15 Forecast Page. Let’s hope we do not see dry stretches this long again through the summer.