COOL, DAMP CONDITIONS IN FORECAST FOR REGION

With a high temperature at least 20 degrees lower than Tuesday's and a 60 percent chance of showers and thundershowers overnight, today's weather should differ dramatically from the dryness and warmth the region has been experiencing.

Kelly Hooper, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Paducah, Ky., wouldn't say autumn has arrived.

But, he said, "It's going to feel like it."

The high temperature today is expected to reach only 60 to 65 degrees after topping out at 90 degrees on Tuesday.

A Canadian cold air mass stretching from Lake Michigan to Texas is responsible for the rain and cooler temperatures.

"This is going to be the biggest air mass change since spring," Hooper said.

Temperatures for the next few days will be below normal

"It will start moderating into near normal temperatures by the end of the workweek," Hooper said. That should mean high temperatures in the 70s.

A 30 percent chance of rain is forecast for this morning. Hooper said the badly needed rain could reach totals of a tenth to a quarter inch across the region and half an inch in isolated places.

Rainfall in the region is nearly three inches behind the average for September and about five inches behind the normal rainfall for the year. The conditions qualify as a severe drought under National Weather Service guidelines.

Prior to today, only 0.24 inches of rain had been recorded at the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport since Aug. 8. Even if the predicted rainfall occurs, it won't end the drought.

"I don't see anything in the next seven days that will catch us up," Hooper said.

At least an inch of rain is needed to do farmers any good against the drought and double that amount is needed to have any long-term effect, says Gerald Bryan, an agronomist for the University of Missouri Extension Service in Jackson.

At least they would be able to plant their wheat. "If they planted now it wouldn't come up," Bryan said Tuesday. "Essentially there's no moisture available to crops in the top two feet of soil right now."

Fescue pastures start growing in September and October, so a rain now will help them come back in early spring, Bryan said.

But even a sizable rain now can't help some crops.

"All the corn and soybeans are beyond hope," he said. "They're harvesting a good portion of the corn already."

One soybean farmer in the area harvested four bushels to the acre. The normal harvest is 40 bushels to the acre.

Getting only a quarter-inch of rain now would do more harm than good because it would stimulate growth that could not be sustained if no more rain follows, Bryan said.

He said farmers are very depressed these days, "not only over the drought but over commodity prices of corn, soybeans, hogs and cattle. That has been grinding on them for two years or more."