RAIN IN AREA LEAVES TRACE OF RELIEF

"Rain, rain, go away. Come again another day."

Although it's a verse in a popular children's rhyme, few area residents expressed that sentiment last month.

Area lawns and gardens showed distress after more than 30 hot, dry days. But relief came Thursday evening when a much-needed rain shower fell across Cape Girardeau.

However, only a trace of rain was reported by the Cape Girardeau Weather Cooperative at the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport. The shower lasted about 30 minutes.

The last big rainfall recorded in Cape Girardeau was Aug. 5.

Al Robertson, a climatologist, said there was another rainfall on the last day of August -- 0.02 inches -- but it wasn't a really significant amount.

The rainfalls in early August amounted to 1.27 inches of rain in a two-day period.

Robertson said normal August rainfall is 3.7 inches.

"When you get most of the rain early and the rest of the month is dry with too much evaporation, you see what happens to the lawns and gardens," Robertson said.

August was the driest month of the year to date, he said, adding that February is typically the year's driest month.