AS IT SHOULD, MAY GETS OFF TO WET START

Area farmers see recent rains as somewhat of a blessing -- as long as it stops at the right time.

To highway construction workers, the weather allows them to catch up on paperwork from a season running ahead of schedule. But they, too, prefer just the right amount of rain.

For weather watchers, May is starting off they way it is supposed to -- the wettest month of the year. At Cape Girardeau Regional Airport, 1.8 inches of rain was recorded Monday.

April was unusually dry, said Dr. Al Robertson of the Southeast Missouri State University geosciences department. The 3.11 inches of precipitation was a third less than the normal 4.47 inches.

Records show that during the first half of April, only .19 of an inch of rain fell here.

Robertson said rain the last three days is from the jet stream moving from the Pacific Ocean in a straight line across the nation's midsection. Usually, the jet stream -- a massive current of air speeding across the continent -- dips and plunges from north to south. A straight jet stream is not unusual, but it shoves Pacific storms into the Midwest in a matter of days instead of a week.

During the thrust across the continent, storm systems gather moisture from the Rocky Mountains, causing rain when they race across the Great Plains.

Robertson said the southeastern panhandle of Alaska registered higher temperatures than Cape Girardeau did Sunday.

"It's running almost due west to east from the Pacific," said Robertson. "There are three more storms lined up, so we might see a respite of a day or two before another storm hits."

Gerald Byran, an agronomist with the University of Missouri Extension, said for farmers who have corn planted, the rain is good.

"This would be ideal if it were a little warmer," said Bryan. "I'm sure there are some farmers pretty happy with the rain."

On flat ground, most of the corn is planted. In the hills and creek areas, less than half has been planted.

If the rain lasts much longer, Bryan said, the almost-ideal weather could turn harmful to the budding crops, lowering the per-acre yield of corn and opening wheat to disease.

"If it keeps raining, it's good for wheat diseases," he said. "If it's rainy when the plant is flowering, then that could cause a disease called scabs."

Scabs impacted the wheat crop in 1990 to the extent that yields were reduced 80 percent.

For construction projects in the area, contractors must simply wait for the rain to end.

"We kind of twiddle our thumbs," said Bob Simpson, District 10 design engineer for the Missouri Highways and Transportation Department.

"We can't work when it's unsuitable," Simpson said. "Right now we can't lay asphalt, and it's already too muddy for dirt work. We're hamstrung until the rain quits."

Some Cape Girardeau projects were helped by the dry April and were ahead of schedule when the rain started.

Simpson said most of the dirt work on the I-55-Route K on-ramps is done, but the earth work for the new Route 74 has been halted.

"There on Route 74, we can't do much grading," he said. "It seems like just about the time it gets dry enough to work, another rain comes, and we get to catch up on paperwork."