We've Got The County Covered
We've Got The County Covered
Steady rain has hit the area — and much of the rest of the state — for the past few weeks, bringing much-needed precipitation after months of heavy drought.
But while the National Drought Monitor shows improvement, this part of Montana, and, again, much of the rest of the state, are still in dire need of more rain.
But it poured, a steady, mostly gentle rain, for most of four days.
From Saturday, May 30, through Tuesday, June 2, National Weather Service recorded at its station at the Havre City-County Airport 2.87 inches of rain, including a record 1 inch of rainfall May 30 and a record .73 inches June 1.
Chinook — which received a record .56 inches May 14 in a storm that mostly missed Havre — also set a record June 1 with 1.25 inches of rain. From May 30 through June 3 Weather Service reports Chinook received 1.97 inches of rain.
The rains had continued on-and-off since then through Friday, June 12, the day this story was filed, with Weather Service reporting Havre had received 3.64 inches of precipitation from June 30 on, and Chinook receiving at least 2.47 inches, although two days of data were missing for Chinook.
And the amounts varied widely by region. Todd Donoven said their farm west of Kremlin received 5 inches of rain, while a reporting station on Bowery Peak on Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation in the Bear Paw Mountains reported 11 inches.
The forecast as of Friday predicted a few showers and thundershowers through today, but nothing like the steady rain of the end of May and beginning of June.
National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center predicts slightly more-than-normal chance for precipitation and slightly cooler-than-normal for the nexst week, then turning warmer and dryer weather in the next few months.
And the situation has improved the reports on the National Drought Monitor significantly.
Hill and Blaine counties are shown as mostly in moderate drought conditions, with a patch of severe drought crossing the county line on the northern parts of the counties.
A patch of extreme drought that had been listed in parts of Chouteau, Toole and Pondera counties has shrunk and been downgraded to severe drought.
And a large patch of the state west of the Continental Divide, about two-thirds of it, are now listed with no drought conditions, though a patch of extreme drought remains over parts of Bearverhead and Madison Counties and another patch is on the far eastern part of the state, from Dawson through Sheridan counties.
The Drought Monitor’s seasonal drought outlook through August predicts drought will remain in most of the southern and eastern part of the state, and to remain but improve in most of this area of Montana.
