2023 Spring Farm Outlook

Page 6 2023 Logan County Spring Farm Outlook LINCOLN DAILY NEWS March 2023 By Ed Shimon, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NWS -Lincoln The ebb and flow of precipitation across Logan County is highly variable, from day to day, month to month, and year to year. Eight months of 2022 had below normal precipitation in Lincoln as tracked by the National Weather Service. The four consecutive months of below normal precipitation in April, May, June and July of 2022 sent Logan County’s drought monitor status (drought.gov) into the Moderately Dry (D1) level. That was the highest drought status for the year. A wave of rain in early August helped put a serious dent in that deficit, when 3.21 inches of rain fell from August 1st to August 3rd. However, additional below normal precipitation occurred in September, October, and November, sending Logan County into the Winter of 2022-2023 in a precipitation deficit Logan County is not as dry as you may think compared to normal. The drought monitor had Logan County in the Abnormally Dry (D0) category. Due to climatologically less chances of thunderstorms and heavy rainfall in winter, typically, that status can persist through a winter season. While the NWS in Lincoln recorded an early snowfall of a trace on October 17th and some mid-November snowfall of 0.8 inches, there was a general lack of snowfall for a majority of December. Mother Nature did throw an impactfully strong storm at the area just before Christmas. Blizzard-like conditions did occur across central Illinois, even though measurable snowfall from the event only added up to 1.5 inches at the NWS office in Lincoln. It could have been that some of the snow may have just blown away after falling due to northwest winds gusting to 40-50 mph. Continued --