Recent rainfall could show initial drought improvements, but there’s more to the story

For months now mid-Missouri has been under a widespread drought that has continued to worsen over the past several months due to elongated periods of dryness. The simple solution to ending a drought is obviously rain, but it’s not quite that simple. Dry conditions don’t necessarily come to end after a single day of rain. Of course, some rain is better than nothing, but a big factor in ending dry soil conditions is time.

For example, just because you take one dose of medicine doesn’t mean you’re cured from your sickness. Often times, it takes several doses to show more significant improvements until you are completely healthy. The same goes for dry soil in regards to rain.

Initially, heavy downpours will provide some relief. We may start to see some minor improvements, but this will only be brief and won’t contribute to ending the long term drought. If a lot of rain falls in a very short amount of time there will be mostly run off of water into streams, rivers, and creeks. This will prevent the precipitation from soaking into the ground. This can also create flooding issues.

Within the last day, Columbia received 1.66″ of rainfall, which has been much needed and will provide for that initial relief. Luckily, the 1.66″ didn’t all come from a single, quick downpour or thunderstorm. It occurred within a 24 timeframe, which provided for less run off and more time for the ground to absorb the water. The last time we saw a 24 hour period with that much rain was May 3rd, 2017.

However, much more rain is needed to for this drought to come to a close. To end the dryness across the state, at least 3-7″ is needed and within a good amount of time. While this single day rain event we just saw isn’t drought busting, more rain is to come as an active weather pattern will continue to play out.

The ABC 17 Stormtrack Weather Team is continuing to track several more rounds of rain into the weekend. Both Thursday and Friday night mid-Missouri has the chance to receive more rainfall as scattered showers move through the area all the way through Saturday. This could provide another 1-2″ of rainfall across parts of mid-Missouri within the next 48 hours and even more by the end of the week. Stay up to date on these much needed showers with the ABC 17 Stormtrack Weather Team on air and online.