Ceaseless Wind

October 2009 was a very wet, cool and somewhat cloudy month!  It ended up with top ten rankings in both temperature and precipitation.

The first day of the month was actually near the normal temperature pattern and was accompanied by some severe weather.  Some wind damage was reported near Shell Knob in Barry County and there were also minor hail reports in the area.

Rainfall Estimate from 7-8th Storm

But the type of storm which would make headlines this month was rain.  The biggest storm of the month was on the 7th and 8th when huge amounts of rain fell over the area.  It had been wet in spots earlier in the week but the main surge produced rain totals near 9 inches and perhaps more in some locations!  The official total at the Springfield National Weather Service Office  was 4.47″ which established a new record for the day and narrowly missed making it on the top ten wettest days list too!  A detailed review of the rain can be found here.

Another record producing rainfall on the 29th (1.72″) was the final addition to a month which saw 9.97″ of rain!  This is 6.50″ above normal.  It is more rain than we received during the La Nina wet March of 2008 (9.40″).

Mean Temperature Departure October 2009

It was also very cool.  While Springfield came in about 6.4 degrees below normal, the departure was closer to 7 or 8 degrees in extreme western Missouri.  Only 4 days saw their high temperature reach above normal.  The first frost/freeze occurred on Saturday/Sunday morning the 17th/18th by getting down to 32/30 respectively.

The pattern thankfully started to change by months’ end including a great Halloween with mild to cool temperatures, clear skies and a nearly full moon.  Not nearly as scary and dreary as the rest of the month had been!

The Springfield National Weather Service has an excellent summary of this unusual month as well.

September Precipitation

The month of September opened with cool air!  High pressure was slowing moving off and by later in the work week, bands of clouds and showers were showing up west of the Ozarks and were beginning to creep eastward.  A hefty amount of rain scooted southward overnight Tuesday and early Wednesday producing 3-4 inch totals in eastern Kansas.   

A weak upper level trough was developing over the central U.S. for the Labor Day weekend.  This system moved east and took rain progressively out of the area through the holiday weekend, leaving Labor Day itself dry and warm with moderate humidity.

The rest of the week featured a return to near normal weather as highs reached into the middle eighties in spots.  Weak weather systems hanging out just west of the Ozarks produced some rain chances and also kept temperatures in the seventies in places.  A very weak upper level trough with several weaker disturbances produced the rain.  One such rain on Wednesday produced another record rainfall of 1.74″; we had a record rain back in August too.

September Temperature Departure

Cut off lows to our north and south finished up the week of the 7th and into the weekend.  Heavier rain stayed to our south with the southern low.  Temperatures still remain cool for the season.  The southern low started backing up, lacking any real jet stream guidance.

A stronger cut-off low was originally forecast to pass to the south of the area the week of the 14th but instead began to slow and eventually back up to our southwest and then finally back to the east by the weekend.  It was this low which produced a surge of moisture into the area on Saturday the 19th caused flooding in many isolated spots but by far the worst occurred in southern Lawrence and northern Barry particularly in the Monett area where widespread flooding of streets and businesses occurred.  The National Weather Service review is here.

Another low dominated the week of the 21st, this time hanging to our west before advancing late in the week.  The heaviest rains occurred on that Monday with very active thunderstorms although little severe weather.  Flash flooding was again a problem.  The rest of the week was cloudy and cool.

The final weekend of the month featured good weather.  Fall-like on Saturday and summer-like on Sunday.  A strong cool front swept through into Monday and ushered in the coolest air of the season as lows tumbled well down into the forties on Tuesday and Wednesday morning.  The month ended relatively mild in anticipation of a potent upper level trough and the strong storms it may bring on the first of October.

Radar Estimated Rainfall 8/10/09

August started on a Saturday with a rain along front which cleared by later in the day.  This was followed by a great Sunday.  But heat and humidity swelled into the area on Monday the 3rd with dew points and temperatures jumping about 16-18 in a day! 

We returned to the pattern of stalled fronts to the north and east firing clusters of storms affecting portions of the Ozarks.  A front did manage to keep temperatures in check around the 5th/6th.  The heat returned again on the weekend with middle 90’s but with a great breeze! 

Another front provided rain and cooler temperatures on Monday 10th.  Heavy rains fell on this day including a record 2.58″ at the SGF NWS.  Widespread 2-3″ totals occurred in portions Greene, Polk and St. Clair Counties with isolated 4″ totals.  A very quiet period followed for the rest of the week and into the weekend of the 15/16th.  It was a great viewing for the Perseid Meteor shower! There was increasing attention on what tropical disburbances in the Atlantic Ocean were doing including incipent “Bill” and a forgotten “Claudette”.  The weekend of the 15/16th contained a fair amount of afternoon cloudiness and some rain showers especially west and north of Springfield.

Another front visited on Monday the 17th with some heavy rain totals.  But the main front of this week arrived early Thursday.  Out ahead of it on Wednesday evening, a tornado watch was posted; a rarity for August.  A bowing segment in southeastern Kansas turned into a large squall line which blew through the Ozarks.  Tornado warnings were hoisted for portions of Dade, Laclede, Newton, McDonald and Barry counties.  An EF1 tornado occurred north of Roby in Texas County.  Numerous reports of 50-60 mph winds and some light damage.  An active storm traveled from Newton and McDonald and into Barry around the midnight hour with several reports of wall clouds and funnels.

Precipitation for July 2009

July 2009 was of course a cool month in the Ozarks as discussed  here.  We finally got a piece of the type of summer that the northeastern U.S. had experienced as the jet stream backed westward and sunk southward over the central U.S. allowing cool air to spill southward.

Springfield was slightly wet with rainfall at +0.14 to normal.  While this is only slightly above normal, it seemed wetter because precipitation was reported on about half (15 out of 31) of the days!

Overall, the rain pattern focused on the Lake of the Ozarks area and on northcentral Arkansas. Jayme Genz, who lives just north of Mtn. Home, AR, received 8.66″ for the month!

Overnight storms produced minor wind damage on the morning of the 10th in Christian County.  Around 11pm on the 11th, West Plains police and fire HQ reported a few awnings had been damaged from thunderstorm winds and that six power poles had been snapped.  These storms had been extensively tornado warned earlier in the evening but there were no reports of any twisters.  More wind damage was reported in McDonald County the next day (12th).  Other storm reports, mostly wind, occurred on the 15th, 16th, 20th and 29th.

While the central and northeastern U.S. were very cool, the Pacific northwest was very hot with record high temperatures over 100 degrees common right up to the Pacific coast.  It is often the case that a surge of hot air to our west leads to a cooler pattern of weather in the central and/or eastern U.S.

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