The month of June began hot and dry but an active weather pattern returned mid-month to send water spilling over rain gauges across the area.

We kicked off the month of June with 13 straight days of dry weather and it brought near record highs in the 90's...indicating to many that we have entered the dog days of summer early and rain was going to be hard to come by.

The flip switched from famine to feast as an active weather pattern, including stationary boundaries and numerous mesoscale convective complexes, to set the stage for flash flooding and record daily rainfall across the Local 6 area.

After an already disastrous Spring flooding season many areas faced more high water and farmers rejoiced at the early summer rains with the promise of a bumper crop to result.

At the National Weather Service in Paducah, KY the climate norm for June and 2011 looks like this:

• Average June Rainfall: 4.51"
• Record Highest June Rainfall: 10.98" (1998)
• Record Lowest June Rainfall: 0.26" (1952)

Here are the impressive June rainfall totals for communites all across the WPSD Local 6 area. We cover Western Kentucky, Southern Illinois, NW Tennessee, and SE Missouri.

Kentucky

• Paducah NWS: 6.79"
• Draffenville: 5.99"
• Mayfield: 6.02"
• Hickman: 5.34"
• Murray: 6.67"
• Cadiz: 5.69"
• Princeton: 4.71"
• Madisonville: 5.34"
• Marion: 6.37"
• Hopkinsville: 6.18"
• Reidland: 7.55"
• Benton: 4.52"
• Water Valley: 5.24"

Illinois

• Metropolis: 7.67"
• Crab Orchard: 8.20"
• Carbondale: 6.94"
• Dixon Springs: 9.23"
• Round Knob: 7.48"
• Cairo: 3.62"
• Thebes: 4.34"

Tennessee

• Paris: 4.30"
• Greenfield: 8.42"
• Dresden: 5.50"
• Hollow Rock: 5.00"
• Dyersburg: 3.16"

Missouri

• Cape Girardeau: 5.32"
• Poplar Bluff: 1.16"
• Jackson: 3.38"
• East Prarie: 4.30"
• Gideon: 1.65"

*NWS Paducah set a daily record rainfall total on June 26, 2011 with 3.14"

*Year-to-date rainfall totals are staggering and fully support why Flood 2011 materialized. So far (as of June 28) the yearly total is 44.93" at Paducah NWS which puts us at a surplus of 19.36".