The calendar may say June, but the type of weather that’s been pummeling the area resembles May weather, said Meteorologist Bill Davis with the National Weather Service in Springfield.
“We seem to be about a month behind,” he said.
Jasper County was under a flash flood warning as a Tuesday morning storm lashed Carthage with rain, lightning and thunder. Davis said the flash flood warning could be extended through “most of the day” due to potential rains “reforming this afternoon.”
Most of the thunderstorms have moved out of the area, lashing north Arkansas and the Jasper County dodged a pretty big bullet Monday, as the heavy stuff went north, with flooding closing sections of Interstate 70 and neighborhoods in both Kansas City and St. Louis.
“It’s a bit strange in the complexity of the storms,” Davis said of the recent activity. “The heavy down pouring of rain is pretty typical for this time of year. It’s a good thing it’s not Spring.” With that season’s numerous cold fronts, he continued, the combination “would be explosive.”
Later in the summer, as the warm air at the high altitudes replaces the more spring-like cold weather, it serves as a cap of sorts to prevent big thunderstorms from forming. Here in the early summer, that hasn’t quite happened yet.
“This is more typical for a week in May, not June,” Davis said.
Rainfall
The Carthage Water & Electric Plant on River Street reported 1.25 inches of moisture from the storms that rolled through the area Tuesday morning.
