Healthy rain doses are falling in the driest Mid-Missouri counties, but how helpful is it?

Measurable rainfall has benefitted and will continue to benefit some of our driest counties this week.

Looking back at the one-year deficit count, Pulaski, Audrain, and Monroe counties report drier-than-normal conditions. More recently, the rolling 30-day count has lumped almost the entire region into this category, save for parts of Chariton and Macon counties.

Between Tuesday night's onset of thunderstorms and Wednesday's mid-morning lull in the rain, a nearly uniform distribution of 0.5 to 1 inch of rain, with the highest totals coming generally south of I-70 and west of Highway 63.

Additional showers are forecast through the day on Wednesday, giving way to heavier rain producing thunderstorms early Thursday morning. Additional rainfall will fall nearly everywhere between midday Wednesday and Thursday night, but the greatest totals are again expected in the south.

This is co-located with where some of the driest conditions in the region are estimated to have been found over the last 90 days according to NOAA's Standardized Precipitation Index. Areas of Severe to Extreme drought have developed in Camden, Pulaski, and Phelps counties on the drought monitor.

Though not a drought-busting rain, with little flooding concern from this week's rain, there is reason to believe this rain will help to ease the drought to some degree.

But what would a "drought-busting" rain look like? According to the National Center for Environmental Information, a calculation based on the Palmer Hydrological Drought Index suggests these areas would need 4 to 8 inches of rain over the course of a month to "terminate" drought. This would return the region to normal hydrological conditions.

There is another classification called "amelioration", which would essentially improve drought to subsevere status. For this, the hardest-hit region of Mid-Missouri would need close to 5 inches over a month's time.

While not enough to immediately improve drought without subsequent healthy rains, 1-3 inches during this two-day stretch would be a chunk of progress in the right direction.