The month of May was an all-timer in Kansas, as sites across the state recorded rain on all but two days. The deluge broke state and local rainfall records as well as setting several high water marks in Kansas rivers, streams, and reservoirs.
It rained, it poured, the old man snored
Statewide, average rainfall in May was 10.26 inches according to data collected by Kansas Mesonet weather stations and compiled by the Kansas State University Weather Data Library.
In Allen County, 16.70 inches of rain fell in May.
May, June and July are historically Kansas wettest months. But this May was by far the wettest on record, which goes back 125 years.
In fact it was the wettest month ever recorded period. The previous record was set in June 1951.
The prolonged period of rain also helped set several local records.
On May 8, 8.22 inches of rain were measured in the south central Kansas town of Wellington besting the previous record for rainfall in a 24-hour period of 6.52 inches set on June 21, 1942.
In the northeast corner of the state, Horton also set a 24-hour rainfall record: 9.42 inches on May 24.
200 daily records, meaning the most amount of rain to ever fall on a particular day, were also set.
In addition, 19 weather stations in the state recorded monthly totals of more than 20 inches of rain.
Volunteer weather watchers with the Community Collaborative Rain Hail and Snow Network station in Rose Hill, just south of Wichita, took top honors, recording more than 30 inches of rain in the month of May.
The rainfall was uneven across the state, but followed typical patterns drier in the west, wetter in the east. At the extremes, southeast Kansas stations averaged 17 inches of rain for the month, while west central Kansas stations averaged only 5.31 inches, which is still 175% of normal rainfall for the region in May.
Rivers, streams, and reservoirs full up
All of the rain has to go somewhere. With much of the ground already saturated from April showers, most of it ended up in a Kansas river or stream, making pit stops in flood control reservoirs along its way downstream toward the Mississippi River and Gulf of Mexico.
The amount of water moving through the system was as high as anything the U.S. Geological Surveys Kansas Water Science Center has ever seen.
Reservoirs including Tuttle Creek Lake, Perry Lake, Milford Lake, and Cheney Lake came near to or exceeded their capacity.
