After a dry winter, spring has been quite the opposite in the Midwest.

St. Louis Lambert International Airport collected 8.16” of rain during April, making it the 8th wettest April on record.

A trace or more of rain was measured on 14 days of the month. Six of those days saw nearly an inch or more of rain collected.

Back in March, Senior Hydrologist Mark Fuchs, at the National Weather Service in St. Louis, expressed the low risk of spring flooding in the region based on historical trends and data. The dry winter and lack of an upstream snowpack had rivers and tributaries running below normal with dry and moderate drought conditions through late April.

However, he did caution that localized flooding would be possible from spring-time thunderstorms, but since we saw a prolonged period of dry conditions, minor flooding would likely be the highest level of flooding to be reached. There is some positive news, drought conditions across most of the state has improved. 

With heavy rain falling recently, not only across Missouri, but upstream as well, tributaries and creeks have become swollen. As water flows downstream into large bodies of water, major rivers are seeing minor flood stages.

Flood crests are projected along the Missouri River, the Mississippi River, the Illinois River and small parts of the Meramec River. With unsettled weather expected through the weekend, more rainfall will add to the already swollen waters.

The month of May, climatologically, is one of our wetter months with an average of 4.82” of precipitation. The Climate Prediction Center shows a climate signal of wetter than normal for the month.  

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