The wettest May in years continues with more rainfall expected later this week on Wednesday followed by another soaking this weekend. This could end up being on the Top 10 wettest May’s on record for the Fort Smith area.
Here are the totals as of Monday May 18th:
Typically May is one of the wetter months of the year but rain totals are already 100-200% of normal this year.
This is a map that shows the accumulated rainfall for the last 30 days. Notice that over 15″ has fallen in many locations from Fort Smith and south.
What’s remarkable is that there isn’t much change to the overall pattern for the next week. The upper levels have be dominated by a large area of low pressure on the west coast that is unable to advance east due to a stronger area of high pressure on the east coast.
The result is a stagnant and blocking pattern with disturbances rotating around the base of the west coast trough and moving into our area. The low is also dragging in moisture from the Pacific which has resulted in higher that normal precipitable water values so when it rains… it produces more rain that a progressive pattern would yield.
On Wednesday, there isn’t much change in the upper levels.
Here’s Saturday. Still not much change although the upper level energy is a little better which could raise the severe weather concerns heading into the weekend.
-Garrett