Rain, Rain, and More Rain for Kansas

The Sunflower State has received some bountiful, and beneficial, rainfall over the past week.

In my new post in southwest Kansas, the land is greening up and young sunflowers are sprouting again. In the Flint Hills, the quiet rolling waves of land are a vibrant green instead of deep blue.

On my recent trip to Wabaunsee County for Symphony in the Flint Hills, the weather was cool and rainy, which was perfect. The lush hills dazzled out-of-towners, and a little cattle drive set to the Kansas City Symphony gave the evening a sparkle of prairie magic.

A cattle drive at Symphony in the Flint Hills in Wabaunsee County, 2023.

It was a lovely evening of art and culture, and calming vistas. The raindrops didn't bother most spectators, and many folks planned ahead and brought umbrellas or large hats. I highly enjoyed the sprinkles. 

The Flint Hills isn't the only region of Kansas that's received helpful moisture recently. According to K-State climatologist Matt Sittel, slow-moving thunderstorms during the week of May 31 to June 6 led to heavy rainfall totals in east-central and south central Kansas. Northeast Kansas received up to four inches of rain in a 24-hour period on May 31.

Sittel wrote in his June 6 state drought report that rainfall totals of 2-4 inches were common for the 48-hour period ending June 3 in south central Kansas. The Pratt area got more than three inches of rain during this timeframe, with some surrounding counties also reporting at least three inches. For the week of May 31 - June 6, 1.88 inches of rain on average fell statewide.

The rainy pattern has persisted into June, which matches what is more commonly the wettest part of the year for Kansas. From June 5-11, Manhattan received 1.63 inches of rain. Garden City saw 0.72 inches of precip for the same timeframe, while Colby noted 1.23 inches of rain for that week.

In just the past 24 hours, Garden City has recorded an additional 0.42 inches of rain, according to the Kansas Mesonet weather network. Farther west, Hamilton and Kearny counties recorded up to an inch and a quarter of new rain.

Even more rain is coming. Forecasters at the National Weather Service office in Wichita say the wet pattern will continue through Thursday (06-15) evening. The current combined forecast rainfall total is 1-2 inches across west central into central Kansas, mostly north of Garden City and Dodge City. That heavy corridor of rain could shift north or south, they say, but it's still a vast improvement over the parched drought conditions the region was experiencing even six months ago.

I'll see how soggy things get by Friday morning.