TRAVERSE CITY — Rain gauges that were dry for much of the summer are now overflowing, relieving drought conditions across much of northern Michigan.
The Traverse City area received nearly 3 inches of rain from Aug. 27 through Aug. 29, and got another 1.17 inches so far this month.
It has also been a warm summer, with most of the northern region posting temperatures above their long-term averages, according to data from the National Weather Service.
Traverse City had its third warmest summer on record with an average temperatures of 71.1 degrees, which is 4.3 degrees above the long-term average of 66.8 degrees.
Temperatures are measured at the Cherry Capital Airport.
John King is the owner of King Orchards in Antrim County, which was experiencing severe drought conditions in some areas.
"The drought severely affected the raspberries," King said.
The apples are probably are a little small, but we think we have a really good crop coming."
King also had a great corn crop.
Cumulative rain data will be posted Thursday and Lutz expects that recent rains will have made up the rainfall deficit in many of the areas seeing drought conditions, with the classification being lifted.

Thunderstorms brought some much-needed moisture and cooler conditions to the Central Texas corridor this weekend, with particularly heavy rainfall Sunday.
“Most of Bell County has seen 1.5 to 2 inches,” said Meteorologist Matt Stalley with the National Weather Service in Fort Worth.
“The highest in the county was near the Belton area, which got 4.66 inches since last Friday.” As of press time, 0.98 inches of rain fell in the Killeen area Sunday alone, according to the NWS.
“Chances are highest in the morning with a 50 to 60 percent chance.” The high temperature for today is forecast to be 90 degrees, according to the NWS.
Stalley said the weather may taper off as the week continues, with rain chances decreasing to 20 percent by Tuesday.
Unfortunately, the rain may not be enough to offset the substantial drought within the region that has prompted many local cities to enter stage 1 of water conservation plans.
Two of the major water sources for the surrounding communities, Belton Lake and Stillhouse Hollow Lake, have risen to 589.29 feet and 614.77 feet, respectively.
These elevations represent a slight increase in the lake levels but do not suggest the recent storm systems had a strong impact on the drought.
“Most of the area had a pretty substantial deficit of rainfall this year so we do still have a ways to go to make up for the lack of rainfall over the last few months.” He said temperatures are expected to stay in the low to mid-70s throughout the rest of the week with highs to the mid-90s.
“For the second half of the week, there will be a gradual warming trend with a high temperature around 94 by Thursday,” Stalley said.

No one made any hay this year.
“This started back in June of 2017,” Fleming said.
Our stock tanks are dry or just about dry and trying to water a cow with a water hose is pretty expensive.” Thinning the herd Without adequate hay and water to sustain a herd, many producers were forced to sell off cattle early.
There are lots of cattle coming to market right now because nobody has any grass to feed them,” Fleming said.
“What we’re seeing a lot is cattle coming off lighter and moving earlier than they normally would,” Marburger said.
You sell the calves first to try to save the cows,” Mingus said.
You’re going to start getting into some of the better cows when you start doing that.” Market status “For as much as the supply has increased, the market has stayed pretty stable this summer,” Marburger said.
He added that the demand for beef should keep the market strong even as producers sell off herds.
“Even with the drought, I still see our state cattle herd and the national cattle herd continuing on a growth pattern,” Marburger said.
“If we go to running the better cows, then we might get some out-of-state people coming in if they have grass,” Mingus said.

Goetz problem is something the agriculture industry has been struggling with throughout the state this summer amidabnormally dry conditions.
The U.S. Drought Monitor on Tuesday reported that just over 43 percent of the state was under abnormally dry conditions; there was a moderate drought for over 25 percent.
"You used to hear folks talk about these nice, overnight rains that were slow and steady.
"You just don’t know when you’re going to get rain and where.
Meteorologists do their best to predict those things, but in the agricultural industry, we understand those factors are out of our control.
"It happens from time to time where things become abnormally dry due to the nature of weather patterns."
Irrigation is a common means for farmers to keep their crops alive.
Goetz said he put in a third well last year to make sure there’s enough water to outlast the dry conditions.
"In the summer months, with precipitation being quite variable, you could see adjacent areas get no rain and some get quite a bit of rain."
The reality of a drought, Goetz says, is that farmers have to make decisions about what plants need more water and which ones can get by with less.

Dry weather in our area is not good news for the increasing drought.
We haven’t seen an inch of rain since July 19th and another inch is going to be hard to come by.
While drought conditions are worsening in Iowa, Central Illinois has seen some pretty good rains this week.
For that reason, the drought statewide in Illinois is improving.
All the while, Missouri is now seeing 95% of its land area in official drought conditions.
Here is a look at rainfall projections for the next week or so, courtesy of the National Weather Service GFS computer model.
There is a big hole in the map across northern Missouri and Western Illinois.
Let’s hope that changes somehow.
There’s a very small chance of a thunderstorm here Friday morning, with completely dry skies through early Monday morning.
-Meteorologist Eric Sorensen

Certainly, these recent storms have been very fruitful, but it’s not going to get us out of drought … particularly over the northern mountains.” The Drought Monitor Work Group, made up of members of the National Weather Service and state and federal agencies, determines the extent and severity of drought in the state.
Areas under exceptional drought include the northern part of the state and the Four Corners, where precipitation during the past six months was 50 to 75 percent of normal across much of the region.
Last year at this time, no part of the state was considered to be in severe, extreme or exceptional drought and only 5 percent was considered abnormally dry.
There are usually distinct periods of heavy rain during the monsoon and periods with little or no rain.
However, the city is still in a rainfall deficit for the year, at 4.45 inches.
The rain has helped place Bernalillo County and the middle Rio Grande Valley into the severe drought category, an improvement from the extreme drought category it was in last week.
Southern New Mexico had the greatest improvements, as drought was reduced by one category in many areas compared with last week.
Also during the Working Group conference, Raymond Abeyta of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which manages water resources in the western part of the country, said recent rains helped some with reservoir storage in the Rio Grande Valley.
We’ll have to see whether the rains really develop and really help us out.” El Vado contained about 9,682 acre-feet in July, according to Abeyta, who also said he believed that level was among the lowest he had seen since the early 2000s.
Last year at this time, the lake contained about 140,000 acre-feet of water.

Much of the area is rated in a D3 (extreme drought) or D4 (exceptional drought), according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
Bollinger said since this time last year there have been mostly abnormally dry conditions over the southwest region.
In June, temperatures reached record highs across the region.
June was much of the same, Bollinger said.
“I feel like I’m sounding like a broken record, but we’ve seen a lot of the warmer than average temperatures continue for most of this region,” she said.
“And the reason that warmer than average temperatures are going to be so important, in the region in wintertime it means your not going to be accumulating that snow pack that you really need to build up the water supply when we get to the summer.” The warmer than average temperatures increase the amount of evaporative losses, which worsens the dry conditions, she added.
“We haven’t seen enough precipitation to improve conditions widespread,” Bollinger said.
Bollinger said this is a more active fire season than normal, largely attributed to the drought conditions.
Drought means there’s no water for cattle, especially when ponds are drying up.” Ranchers are having to haul hay and water to cattle already in all the 4 Corners states.
Regional outlook “How do we get back to normal?” she said.

magnoliareporter.com has recorded 24.59 inches of rain in 2018.
According to the report, above normal temperatures and below normal rainfall were observed across much of Southwest Arkansas, Northeast Texas, and Southeast Oklahoma during the spring of 2018.
Rain was much below normal during May – normally one of the wettest months of the year across the region.
In fact, total rainfall since late April has ranged from 3 to 6 inches across much of East Texas, Northwest Louisiana, extreme Southern Arkansas, and Choctaw and southern McCurtain counties in Southeast Oklahoma — which is some 6 to 10 inches below normal.
As a result, severe (D2) drought conditions have developed across much of Northwest Louisiana, as well as areas in East Texas, and southern Miller, Lafayette, all of Columbia, and western Union Counties in Southwest Arkansas, and in Southeast Oklahoma.
Moderate (D1) drought conditions surround the existing severe drought areas across much of Northeast Texas, McCurtain County in Oklahoma, and Southwest Arkansas, along with several parishes in Northern Louisiana.
The NWS is predicting a 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms Friday, mainly before 1 p.m., with a temperature high near 90 degrees.
There is a 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms for Friday night.
There is a 20 percent chance of rain for Saturday night.
There is a 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms on Sunday, with a high near 95.

Southern Maine is actually experiencing a drought.
For the third straight year, parts of the state are experiencing dry conditions, although they’re not severe enough to prompt warnings about water restrictions or dry wells.
Auburn reported 1.3 inches of rain between 3:15 p.m. and 4:30 p.m.
More rain is forecast for the Portland area Friday evening, Schroeter said.
But Thursday’s downpours weren’t enough to counter the drought conditions in southern Maine, Schroeter said.
The southern half of the state, and a strip across the far northern part, are either experiencing a moderate drought or abnormally dry conditions, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
If so, the drought warning would be lifted, as it was this week in southern New England, which experienced dry or drought conditions in early July.
Maine has experienced summer droughts for the past three years.
Susan Faloon, spokeswoman for the state Emergency Management Agency, said the agency hasn’t received any formal reports of wells running dry, but some homeowners have said water levels in their wells are low.
Hawley said that he hasn’t heard any reports about farms having problems because of dry conditions.

My yard’s completely brown,” said Suzette Kuban, a McClatchy regional human resources employee who lives in far north Fort Worth.
But the biggest factor is rainfall amounts compared to normal.
This will be the hottest week in DFW in 2 years Worst is yet to come: Find out how hot DFW will get this weekend Current drought conditions Current drought conditions for Tarrant County and surrounding counties provided by the National Weather Service and U.S. Drought Monitor.
“It will lower temperatures to normal or even below normal, and we’ll have some showers and thunderstorms,” he said.
But don’t expect the rain to lift the area out of drought conditions, said Jason Godwin, also a National Weather Service meteorologist.
Forecasters are expecting about a half-inch of rain over the next week and less than two inches of rain in August, Godwin said.
After the below normal temperatures and the rain, expect more normal August temperatures in the mid-90s, Godwin said.
However, the drought conditions may persist into next year, he added.
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