TERRE HAUTE —
While severe drought conditions continue, temperatures in the Wabash Valley will dip somewhat this week from last week’s 100 plus degree days.
Historic high temperatures have negated nearly all rainfall in the past five days (some areas of the state have reported 1 to 5 inches), the National Weather Service in Indianapolis reports.
Terre Haute recorded 106 degrees five times — June 28 and 29, July 5, 6 and 7 — at the Terre Haute International Airport-Hulman Field “so the weather was consistent’ and hot, said NWS Meteorologist John Kwiatkowski.
Independence Day recorded 103 degrees, while July 1 was 102 degrees and July 2 101 degrees, Kwiatkowski said.
“The real hot spell in Terre Haute began on June 28 when it was 106 degrees,” he said. “It was 87 degrees on June 26, which is near normal, but warmed up to 94 degrees on June 27, so [Terre Haute’s] really hot spell began in the last week of June.”
The high temperatures and dry weather resemble the Dust Bowl days of the 1930s, Kwiatkowski said.
Jessie Walker, meteorologist at WTWO-TV, based near Farmersburg, said temperatures at WTWO’s station hit at least 100 degrees for seven consecutive days. The record is 12 days in a row in July 1936, the benchmark of heat waves, he said.
Walker said the drought in Terre Haute started on May 23, similar to the drought of 1988. That year, there was just 5.01 inches of rainfall during April, May and June. This year was nearly identical, with 4.98 inches of rainfall, Walker said.
“We actually had more rainfall in the spring time of 1988 than we did this year, but 1988 is still a littler worse in terms of a drought than this year,” Walker said.
Walker predicts rainfall will develop toward the middle of this month. In 1988, rain returned on July 10, he said.
In Indianapolis, this June was the driest June ever reported and the second driest month reported in history, Kwiatkowski said. The driest month in Indianapolis was March 1910, with 7/100th of an inch of rain.
“We haven’t seen anything like this at Indianapolis since 1930s, however just one thunderstorm that lasts for an one hour, it can change that. But many portions of the state are in their driest conditions since the 1930s,” he said.
Since Jan. 1, Terre Haute has had just 12.56 inches of rainfall, which is 11.33 inches below normal as of Monday, Kwiatkowski said.
“That is drought conditions, no doubt about that,” he said.
There is no relief in sight, at least through this week. The National Weather Service is forecasting a 30 percent chance of rain in Terre Haute on Saturday and Sunday. “But if you look at that, with 30 percent, it is better than 2 to 1 odds that nothing will happen,” Kwiatkowski said.
Parts of Terre Haute, on the north side and some of the east side, had rainfall Sunday, but even that was hit and miss throughout several neighborhoods. While rain is not in the short-term forecast, temperatures are forecast to be lower, in the high 80s to 90 degrees the rest of this week.
Nationally, much of the eastern two-thirds of the nation has set record temperatures, AccuWeather.com reports. More than 3,840 temperature records were shattered in the U.S. from July 1- 8, according to National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration.
Since the beginning of July, 142 all-time record highs have been set or tied across 19 states, according to AccuWeather.com. St. Louis was located in the heart of the heat wave, where the mercury soared to 100 degrees or higher for 10 days in a row through Saturday, making it the second longest streak of 100 degree temperatures in St. Louis since 1936, AccuWeather.com reports.
Howard Greninger can be reached at (812) 231-4204 or howard.greninger@tribstar.com.
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