Mid-September soaker brought mainly beneficial rainfall earlier this week

The early September scorcher gave way to much soggier times across Northwest Missouri and Northeast Kansas earlier this week, as waves of shower and thunderstorm activity tracked through the region Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. For the most part rainfall has been beneficial after the stretch of hot dry weather earlier in the month, although some locations received too much rain in too short a time-frame. 

Parts of Holt and Andrew county were inundated with a deluge of water early Monday morning, as thunderstorms rolled through for several hours dumping 3 to 7 inches of rain in a bulls-eye from southern Holt County extending into parts of western and central Andrew County. Highway 48 was briefly impassable just east of Rosendale as the 102 River burst its banks. Flooding was also reported south of Fillmore, mainly impacting farmland and a handful of private drives. 

Following Monday morning’s locally heavy rainfall, the atmosphere became primed for more wet weather as a stalled front remained in place over parts of Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and Iowa. By Wednesday afternoon the last round of widespread precipitation exited the region. Three day rainfall totals of 2 to 5 inches were common throughout the Mid-Missouri River Valley, including just over 2.5 inches at Rosecrans Airport in St. Joseph. Final three day rainfall totals were much higher in parts of Holt and Andrew County, with radar estimates and automated gauges tallying between 8 and 11 inches of rain over the 72 hour period. 

All things considered, relatively dry soils did a good job at absorbing the excess moisture, leading to only a few instances of flooding regionally. Before this week’s rainfall, early stage drought development was starting to take place, especially south of the highway 36 corridor. Any potential drought will likely be kept at bay for now, with additional rain chances ahead this weekend and early next week.