Rainfall offers brief relief

Southeast Missouri residents awoke Monday to a rare occurrence of late -- gray skies and rainfall expected to continue into tonight.

This is the first substantial rainfall Southeast Missouri has seen rain since August. In September, the Cape Girardeau area received only a trace of rain, meaning less than .01 inches. According to the National Weather Service, the Cape Girardeau area received 7.51 inches of rain in September 2003.

Rain started falling at 8 a.m. Monday and by 8 p.m., .20 inches had been recorded in Cape Girardeau.

Southeast Missouri is not alone in its low rainfall amounts. Paducah, Ky., set a record for the driest September on record with .02 inches of rain, as did Evansville, Ind., with .09 inches.

The series of recent hurricanes on the Eastern Seaboard have been partly to blame for the dry weather in this part of the country, according to Christine Wielgos, meteorologist from the National Weather Service office in Paducah. The storms have disrupted weather patterns across the country, and the cold fronts that are the main source of rain at this time of year have lost their strength by the time they reach places like Southeast Missouri.

However, this week's rainfall is actually the result of the minimal Tropical Storm Matthew, Wielgos said. The storm came ashore in Louisiana back in September and has been heading northeast, the remnants hitting this area in the form of rain.

While there is a 70 percent chance of rain today and a 60 percent chance of rain tonight, by Wednesday the chance of rainfall drops to 30 percent. The resulting rainfall measurement is expected to be from one-half inch to an inch of rain, Wielgos said.

The rain is helpful but not enough to erase fire hazard concerns, said Cape Girardeau fire chief Rick Ennis.

"What we got today is better than nothing," Ennis said. But he said the area could really use several days of heavy rain to negate the dry conditions that are conducive to fires, especially now that people will be burning piles of fallen leaves.

There currently are no burning restrictions in place in Cape Girardeau, but the department is monitoring the situation closely. Scott City and Jackson also have no restrictions in place, although fire chiefs Jay Cassout and Brad Golden said the dry conditions have been reason for concern.

Cassout echoed Ennis' response to Monday's rainfall when he said "every little bit helps."

The rain also helps local farmers who have planted or are just about to plant their wheat crops, said David Reinbott at the University of Missouri Extension office in Benton, Mo.

"We would probably like to get a little more rain, but this rain we're getting now will help a lot," Reinbott said.

The rain will help the wheat germinate, although later on if the weather stays warm and dry, the moisture in the ground could be removed by winds, and the plant could die.

kalfisi@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182