State Climatologist Calls our Summer “Interesting”

MISSOURINET - Climatologist Pat Guinan (guh-NAN) says it’s been a summer of extremes. Typically, he says, north Missouri receives as much as three inches of rainfall in July and August.

But it has received almost none while southern parts of the state have gotten three to six inches of rain and in some places as much as twenty inches.

He calls it “incredible precipitation disparity”

“It’s incredible to think that in a two-hour drive to the north from southern Missouri to northern Missouri we go from extreme wetness, historic flooding, to a drought across northern Missouri,” he says.

The reason for all of this is the kind of stuff television weather people like to show you on a map and wave their arms about when they explain it. But basically, Missouri has been the meat in a weather sandwich.

We’ve been caught between a low-pressure area in northwestern Canada at the same time there has been a strong ridge of high pressure across the southwest. Our interview with Guinan, posted below, contains much richer detail.

He says crops in north Missouri’s prime growing areas are showing stress from the drought, with high temperatures moving in. And Guinan says there is no immediate rain relief in sight.

The National Climate Prediction Center forecasts some rain later in September but Guinan says that might be too late to do much good.

Medicaid Expansion Advocate Argues for Reform

MISSOURI - An advocate for Medicaid expansion argues for an overhaul of the health delivery system at the same time. He has told legislators studying Medicaid reform and expansion that both are possible and both are needed.

One of those delivering the message is the Executive Director of Mercy Telehealth, Doctor Tom Hale, who says it’s hard to identify Medicaid recipients until they show up. But when they do show up, he says, the way they are treated needs to be improved.

Hale tells a Senate committee diagnosis and treatment from a distance, using video, is one way to reduce costs and make it easier for Medicaid-eligible Missourians to access care. He also suggests nurse practitioners and advanced practitioners be allowed ot serve as primary care providers.

Hale also suggests providers locate convenient care clinics next to emergency rooms, so that Medicaid-eligible Missourians who normally seek primary care in emergency rooms have a place to go that will be cheaper and probably will provide higher quality care than an E-R can.

(By Bob Priddy - Missourinet News)