WHERE'S THE RAIN?: LACK OF SUMMER RAIN NOW SERIOUS

September precipitation already has surpassed the tiny little splash recorded in August.

Dr. Al Robertson, a climatologist at Southeast Missouri State University, reported that 0.22 of an inch of rain fell in Cape Girardeau last month.

So far this month, 0.27 of inch has been recorded, Robertson said.

"So we're off and running," he said.

Last month was the second-driest August on record, Robertson said.

"The driest was 60 years ago in 1936, when they got just a trace of precipitation," he said. "That had to have been scary around here. That's very dry."

Average precipitation for August is 3.6 inches. "So, when you've got 0.22, you're well, well, well below that."

Little rain has fallen this summer, according to records at the Cape Weather Cooperative at Cape Girardeau Regional Airport.

In June, rain measured 3.27 inches, 2 inches below normal, while in July, 2.24 inches of rain fell, 1.3 inches below normal.

The dearth of rain hasn't been good for crop or cattle producers, said Gerald Bryan, an agronomy specialist for the University of Missouri Extension Service in Jackson.

"For the cattle producers, the pastures are getting depleted, causing them to have to do some supplemental feeding of hay or grain," Bryan said.

In addition to increasing production costs, additional feed now may cut into feed supplies that will be needed in the winter, he said.

And the extremely dry weather is keeping corn, soybeans and milo from maturing and producing, or cutting into crop yields for some varieties, Bryan said.

"The beans are essentially just drying up," he said.

Rain now might save some of the later varieties, but it is too late for the early crops, he said.

High-pressure cells can usually be blamed for long dry spells this time of year, Robertson said.

"Sometimes what people refer to as a Canadian high-pressure cell develops in eastern Canada and extends southwards this way," he said.

Chicago has been reaping the benefits with fantastic weather, but this year the cell seems to have extended a little farther south to include Cape Girardeau.

"Normally, that doesn't extend this far south," Robertson said.

What the region usually sees is the Bermuda high-pressure cell, which extends northward from the Atlantic, bringing some rain along with stagnant air.

But the current, dry weather pattern is more associated with a polar high-pressure cell "swinging this way," he said.

"We've been the bull's eye for everything," Robertson said. "You go down to the Bootheel, and they got 2, 3, 4 inches of rainfall in August. But it just missed us."

BONE DRY

Last month was the second-driest August on record in Cape Girardeau. Here are some bone-dry precipitation totals for August in years past, according to Dr. Al Robertson, a climatologist at Southeast Missouri State University.

1936 Rain gauges in Cape Girardeau recorded "just a trace," for the driest August on record.

1996 The second-driest August on record, with a scant 0.22 inches of rainfall recorded.

1987 Rainfall surpassed the half-inch mark, but just barely at 0.52 inches.

1980 Positively tropical in comparison, 0.56 inches of rainfall was recorded this year.