After a spring with little to no rainfall, we may have turned the corner. Rainfall was running below average for many locations across northern Michigan.
At the end of June, Traverse City and Sault Ste. Maire was more than 3 inches below the YEARLY average in terms of rainfall. To put that into perspective, that is over 2 feet of snow.
The United States Drought Monitor at the beginning of June featured dry conditions Much of the nation including Michigan was suffering from a lack of rain.
Here is a closer look at the Drought Monitor from Michigan from June 8th, 2021. The Yellow shade is ABNORMALLY DRY. The light orange shade is MODERATE DROUGHT. The dark orange shade is SEVERE DROUGHT. Most of us were in the light orange shade or the MODERATE drought due to the lack of rain as highlighted above. This lead to moderate drought for many, along with wildfire concerns for weeks.
Fast-forward to July where showers have become more frequent it seems. The ground will take any liquid it can after months of dryness. July 14th was a big rainmaker for many helping out the grass tremendously. Many locations received over 1 inch of rain, with isolated spots accumulating 2 to 3 inches of rain.
More specifically, locations from Ludington and Manistee to Lake City and Cadillac. Rainfall totals exceeded 2 inches. Luce County was the only one in the eastern U.P. that picked up a good deal of rain.
The latest Drought Monitor updated July 15th shows quite the improvement. The rainy start to July means happier grass. A big takeaway from the latest update, it does NOT include the rainfall from Wednesday.
The Drought Monitor grabs data every Tuesday morning at 8:00 am. The data is compiled and released Thursday at 8:30 am. Look for the updated drought monitor on 9&10 News Thursday, July 22.
© 2023 - 910 Media Group
