A compilation of local data for September, October and November shows that the season was abnormally dry for much of the region. Seasonal rainfall deficits were upwards of 4 to 8 inches over most of southeast Missouri. Cape Girardeau recorded their 4th driest fall on record, only recording 50% of their normal rainfall. Poplar Bluff and other locations in the Ozark foothills received less than four inches in three months.
Deficits in southern Illinois, southwest Indiana, and the Jackson Purchase area of western Kentucky weren’t as extreme as further to the west. Paducah's rainfall of 10.01 inches was two inches short of normal.
The exception to the dry weather was the Pennyrile region of western Kentucky, where tropical rainfall from the remnants of Hurricane Harvey soaked residents on the 1st of September, and the remnants of Hurricane Nate arrived in early October. Hurricane Irma also affected the region in mid-September, but rainfall totals were lower with that tropical system.
The highest reported seasonal total was in Muhlenberg County north of Greenville which observed 20.80 inches during the three-month period.
Paducah's high temperatures during the fall ranged from 93 degrees in September, to 42 degrees in October. Highs were on average 1.8 degrees warmer than normal. Cape Girardeau was also less than two degrees above normal, but they also established six new record highs for the period.
On the Net:
Paducah Weather Service webpage
