May Rain Totals

Rain-swelled creeks and rivers were overflowing across parts of Missouri in the month of May. Rains have been heavy this spring.

May was the sixth wettest on record. Some of the contiguous United States must have felt as if it was biblical times with amount of rainfall.

For area residents it was not quite that much as we saw 10 days with no precipitation for May in Butler. Butler did see 2.27” fall on the 7th, which was the most in one day during the record totals. State of Missouri May average for precipitation is 5.91”, areas in West Central Missouri saw average totals climb to 9.97” , just throwing another curve for area farmers during spring planting. Official total at the Butler Water Plant was 9.21”, compared to totals of 10.78” in Appleton City and 11.01” in Nevada, while El Dorado Springs 8.76” and Monett 9.97”. 1993 was the wettest year on record for the state of Missouri with 56.90”, Maryville, Missouri that year in July received 25.71”.

The World record Rainfall intensity was 12” in 42 minutes in Holt, Missouri. Perhaps it was not quite that much in May but rain did fall in dramatic totals in 20 states. In 121 years of record keeping never had an average of 4.36” of precipitation fallen on the contiguous United States as it did in May.

May Rain Totals