Chicago closes the books on a very dry spring
The agricultural community, always weather conscious, is well aware that moisture deficits across Illinois are becoming critical, but, for most of us oblivious to the consequences of meteorological abnormalities, dry weather usually means sunny, pleasant days and a dry commute.
With a precipitation total of 5.00 inches for March 1-May 31, spring of 2005 takes its place in Chicago weather history as the seventh driest in 135 years of precipitation records. The long-term average for that period is 9.39 inches, and Chicago’s departure from average, 4.39 inches, has prompted the United States Department of Agriculture to designate the area’s soil moisture deficit as “incipient drought.” That’s the first stage in a five-step tier of increasingly harsh soil moisture deficits that extends from incipient to moderate, severe, extreme and finally exceptional drought.