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After picking up over 0.75 inches of rain last Saturday, this past week has been, at times, brutal with the heat. We are looking at some isolated chances of rain on Friday morning and scattered storms for the afternoon. A weak cold front will provide a focus for thundershowers to form as it passes through for Friday afternoon with a couple of showers possible on Saturday morning as slightly cooler air swings into place ... for a day.

The month of July has brought us 2.18 inches of rain leaving us .20 of an inch short for the month to this point. For the year, on the other hand, we are looking at 23.75 inches of rain which is 1.66 inches above normal.

While it is nice to have a surplus for the year, some of the numbers might be a bit misleading. Much of our rain has come in long and heavy downpours like in May and June. The heavy rain is fine for our lawns although it reaches a point that the ground is too saturated to absorb any more of that much-needed rainfall. The rain that does not soak in only runs off of our lawns, down to the gutter and ultimately ends up in the Kansas and Missouri Rivers. For our lawns to remain lush, green and healthy we need an average of 1 inch of rain each week. I think this rain will bring us little of both; a soaking rain for some areas of northeast Kansas for Friday morning with strong downpours scattered through the region for the afternoon and evening.

1. 18 July 2008 at 11:40 a.m.

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   agardner (Ann Gardner) says…

   What's the difference between “scattered” storms and “isolated” storms in a forecast?

2. 18 July 2008 at 2:20 p.m.

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   melwellku (Matt Elwell) says…

   Great question! When a meteorologist talks about 'isolated' storms, it means that across the viewing area a few areas may get showers while the rest of the area remains dry. The term 'scattered' thunderstorms will typically cover a greater area and more people will see the showers passing through. Roughly speaking 'isolated' storms will bring you around a 30% chance of showers while 'scattered' storms will cover about a 40-60% chance of rain. Those are rough estimates, but a good rule of thumb.

3. 18 July 2008 at 9:45 p.m.

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   melwellku (Matt Elwell) says…

   As a follow-up, we officially picked up only .07 of an inch of rain as of 10:00 PM. The shower chances for the evening are dropping off, but there is still an off-possibility that some showers will make it into the region by tomorrow morning. That only leaves us with about a 15-20% chance of rain heading into early tomorrow. After that, look for the heat to continue and humidity to build.

4. 19 July 2008 at 12:47 a.m.

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   Multidisciplinary (Anonymous) says…

   Oh Joy. I nearly melted today, hehe.
   Can we get some real rain that falls straight down? My front garden keeps getting missed by this 'from the sw' rain.

   My mom once described the difference to me this way:

   Isolated storms are like trees in a park, here and there, lots of space around them.

   Scattered storms are like hand broadcasting grass seeds. There may be a lot of it in your hand, but some falls thicker at one part of the swing and the rest are little bits strewn just everywhere and you have no idea where they are going to fall or if they are going to make contact with the soil.They might just blow away before they drop.

   She was from Alabama in the old days.
   Charming Belle.

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