And the beat in Forsyth goes on...

The beat of rain that is, yes rain is once again falling all across southern Missouri with close to an inch and a half recorded for the first day of May. My weather station recorded a record monthly total of 19.08 inches for April, and now, it looks like the trend may continue. Where's Al Gore when you need him? Anybody seen good old Al?

As I am writing this, it's late Sunday, May 1^st and outside my window lightening is crisscrossing the nighttime sky as a light rain falls. The forecast for Monday is for, you guessed it, more rain. Guess I'll batten down the hatches and go to bed.

Weather extremes slam the Forsyth Missouri area!

What had been normal, to slightly dry conditions for much of southern Missouri, turned wet and wild over the course of a three day period that saw copious rainfall, frequent lightening and overcast skies. Beginning on Friday, April the 23rd a cool dry zone clashed with warm and moist gulf air to produce training precipitation that left many waterways overflowing their banks. Some areas, including Branson and Forsyth in Taney County Missouri received a foot or more of rainfall which resulted in property damage due to rapidly rising waters.

In Forsyth, the park authorities closed River Run on Monday after flood water began encroaching area campsites. My thought is that Shadow Rock Park may follow suit soon.

Forsyth area rainfall good to see!

With April 2011 now winding down, it has been good to see the rainfall totals picking up a bit and perhaps making a dent in the mini-drought we’ve all been experiencing.

As you can see, there are a few campers out and about, even though the weather service is calling for a rainy period right on through the weekend. That hasn’t stopped these folks or the fishermen and women who looked to me to be having pretty good luck.

I took an average of some of the rainfall reading for Thursday, April the 21^st and as you can see, the average is about an inch. Month to date, the area has seen about four inches with a general average for the month at about four and a third inches in a normal year. Now, the focus turns to the rest of this month where we may get too much of a good thing!