Drought returns to central Indiana

The growing season has come to an end across central Indiana.

Indy dropped into the upper 20s Wednesday morning — a couple of weeks ahead of schedule for such cold temperatures.

Although we're turning to the cold season, the amount of precipitation we receive is still important.

Lately, we haven't seen much rain at all. Less than a tenth of an inch of precipitation has fallen so far in October. That puts us in the running for one of the driest Octobers on record.

Many of the current record holders date back to the 18 and early 19 hundreds.

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Our stretch of very dry weather is once again having an impact. Nearly 30% of Indiana is back in Moderate Drought for the first time since early August. This includes areas like Muncie, Richmond, Bloomington and Bedford.

Everyone else is in the Abnormally Dry category, which means there are some water deficits and short-term dryness.

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In order to erase our drought conditions, we would need three to four inches of rain over the next month. That seems very unlikely, especially given fall is a relatively dry time of year across central Indiana anyway.

The map below shows the 7-day rainfall outlook from the Weather Prediction Center. At most, only about a half inch of rain is expected across western portions of the Hoosier State. There are signs of above-average precipitation going into the winter season, but we're likely to stay on the dry side for now.

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