Looking at a radar map of the storm front moving into the region Thursday evening, it was easy to think, “Here comes some rain.”
Waking up this morning to bone-dry pavement and empty rain gauges, the parched region was yet again left disappointed.
The massive storm system moving north through the state simply fell apart, said Matt Gerard of the National Weather Service in Dodge City.
“It just weakened and fell apart completely,” he said.
Before that, the system did drop between 1.25 and 1.5 inches of rain in the Elkhart region, while the Syracuse area had approximately a half-inch of rain.
The system simply didn’t have the upper-level disturbance necessary to maintain it through the cooler evening hours.
“It kind of lost steam as it was coming north,” Gerard said.
For the optimist, there remains chances for moisture throughout the holiday weekend. A system moving north from the Texas Panhandle and Oklahoma could deliver some precipitation this afternoon, while a system currently in the desert Southwest could offer a chance Sunday and into Monday.
“Probably not real severe,” Gerard said of the potential storms. “There’s some potential, but marginal … maybe some smaller hail and wind gusts.”
In northwest Kansas, spotty rain was reported, with a trace amount in far western Ellis County. About a half-inch of rain was reported in northeast Logan County, and a spotter in Sherman County reported 1.11 inches of rain.