We have certainly had our share of April showers around the Chippewa Valley this year; we're currently sitting almost an inch-and-a-half above our average total rainfall for the month. If the old saying holds true, then we're in for some serious May flowers next month!

Hopefully those flowers (and the grass, and the trees, and everything else green) will continue to get plenty of rainfall to get themselves established before the summer heat arrives. If history is any guide, we should be OK in the rainfall department for May, as it's the fifth-wettest month of the year on average, with a normal accumulated liquid precipitation amount (that’s a mouthful) of 3.69 inches. The wettest month of the year (again, on average) is August with 4.68 inches. June, July and September round out the top five in descending order. The wettest May on record occurred back in 1973, when the Chippewa Valley got 9.16 inches of rainfall. Also, the greatest twenty-four hour rainfall amount fell in 1973 (2.61 inches on the 1st, to be exact). On the other end of the scale, the driest May we’ve got record of was in 1992, when we got a paltry 0.92 inches of rain.

It isn't rainfall alone that helps things continue to green up, however; we need to get some sunshine in there too, and it looks like we may have a vitamin D deficiency on our hands for early May. (You know, because sunlight helps your body produce vitamin D? But I digress.) Yet another slowpoke of a storm system will bring clouds, cool temps and a chance of rain to western Wisconsin beginning Thursday and running through the bulk of the weekend. Ugh.