A shower of rain and some cooler weather will make it feel much more like fall. But a rain shower is not going to make this drought go away.
Year to date, precipitation in Fargo-Moorhead is about 63 percent of average. This means we are more than 7 inches below average for the year.
This is nowhere near the driest year on record, and our moisture deficits are a pittance compared to truly severe droughts recently in Texas and other places.
On the other hand, if we were to get a heavy rainfall before freeze-up of, say, 1 or 2 inches, we would still be carrying a moisture deficit of 5 or 6 inches for the year. Of course, an inch or two of rain would be welcome. With one good soaker, lawns and crops both would likely begin the spring of 2013 in a much healthier state.
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