Numbers show it was wet summer

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that Chickasaw County endured a wet summer; after all, most of us are still mowing our grass at least once a week.That’s the anecdotal evidence of how wet we were during what weather forecasters call “meteorological summer,” which consists of the months of June, July and August.Now, we have the hard evidence — the numbers from the National Weather Service, which reports New Hampton officially received 27.64 months during the past three months.That’s more than double the normal precipitation — 12.96 inches — that usually falls during summer.“And if we had a reporting station just north of you, it would be worse,” said Dave Schmidt, a forecaster based at the weather service’s La Crosse, Wis., office. “Just that last round of storms produced two to three inches more of rain than you got in New Hampton. But anyway you look at it, it’s been wet.”This past summer marked the first time in five years that Chickasaw County never appeared on any of the U.S. Drought Monitor’s weekly reports, yet parts of extreme northwest Iowa are experiencing abnormally dry conditions.To put 27.64 inches into perspective, during the prolonged drought that hit the area in 2012, New Hampton received a mere 5.21 inches of rain during June, July and August.The bad news is after a fairly dry 10 days, the area looks like it may be in for another prolonged soaking from Mother Nature.Showers and thunderstorms were likely on Monday night into Tuesday after this edition of the Tribune went to press. more heavy rain is expected to fall on Wednesday.After a dry day on Thursday, forecasters say another round of storms could hit the area on Friday.“It’s just been one of those years when it seems like every storm goes through your area,” Schmidt said. “You guys just seem like you have a target on you this year.”But if it’s any consolation, the weekend looks dry, which means we can mow our lawns ... again.