How Dry Is It?

What do you debate your spouse about? As a couple of meteorologists, we definitely debate the weather. My spouse is convinced that this year has been unusually dry, and we aren’t getting our usual nighttime thunderstorms. I think it’s just a little dry. We both agree it’s going to get worse with a burst of dry heat on its way. We are both meteorologists, and I’m a climatologist on top of that. Obviously, I should be right… right?

The first place I look is at the records for our nearest official climate sites — Omaha and Lincoln (we are about halfway between), with a nod to Norfolk as the next closest. Because Norfolk is some distance away to the northwest, its climate stats are often different from the other two.

Sure enough, Omaha and Lincoln are both on the dry side of average for the summer to date (June 1 to August 1), ranking 43rd of 152 years and 49th of 136 years, respectively. (Omaha has had 5.68 inches of rain and Lincoln has 6.30 inches.) Normal precipitation for June 1 to August 1 in Omaha is 8.12 and Lincoln is 7.82, which means that Omaha has had 70% of its normal and Lincoln 81%.

You want dry? You’d better head to Norfolk. The summer to date there is the 7th driest on record at 3.62 inches, just 49% of its normal 7.46 inches.

We knew that, though, as weather watchers. Storms have favored areas along and south of Interstate 80 in eastern Nebraska, while the north has missed much of the action. The U.S. Drought Monitor confirms what we’ve seen, with a swath of orange- and red-painted “D2” to…