It's been very dry this entire month.
Dry weather in October is not unheard of, but conditions this dry? We are approaching record territory.
Since records have been kept in the St. Louis area since 1874, there have been two other instances that have only had a trace of rain in the first 22 days of the month. To me, that's pretty significant. October is generally a dry month, but not quite this dry.
Now the drought monitor doesn't totally reflect that here. A lot of us aren't even in drought conditions at this moment. Why is that? Recall from Sept. 22-27 that we had 5.75" of rain in that 6 day span. That's a good way for us to catch up! But when you date it all the way back to July 17...we've had 8.07" of rain. That means that the nearly 6 inches of rain we had in that six days was the majority of what we've had in the last three months. That is significant.
Because we only managed a trace of rain Tuesday, we are now sitting at 25 straight days with less than measurable rainfall in the St. Louis area. This is the 15th longest stretch in our history. We are most certainly not going to reach the record set back in 1956, but we may nudge into the top 10 over the coming days.
Friday presents an opportunity to break this streak, but probably not really do much for us. A stronger cold front carries better chances for rain to the north, but we may struggle to find much.
Rain totals above show at least more than a trace, but it won't be much. A dry finish to the month is fairly likely.
I am tracking more of a significant change to our weather pattern by the end of the month. Because it is so far away, the date is uncertain. But it could present not only a rush of cooler air, but a better chance for rain. We will monitor that and hope for more of a widespread chance for rain to cut into the drought.