It was the wettest summer ever for parts of our region

The National Weather Service in Paducah has totaled the numbers for meteorological summer, which includes June, July and August. The main headline was about record or near-record rainfall for many locations in the quad state.

Cape Girardeau experienced the wettest summer in their 66-year period of recordkeeping. Meanwhile, Paducah registered its 2nd-wettest summer on record, more than double the average with 22.4 inches, and barely shy of the 1958 record by five-hundredths of an inch. 

The highest observed total in our forecast area was 30.99 inches near Mound City, IL in Pulaski County. That came close to breaking the wettest summer at any location in our 58-county forecast area which is 32.44 inches in Murray set in 2016. Massac County logged 26.2 inches, Mayfield 23.6 inches and Smithland 23.1.

Nineteen counties in the 58-county NWS service area had at least one location to receive over 20 inches for the summer. Most locations here get 10-12 inches over an average summer.

With all the rain in the southern counties, there were some areas to the north that finished near or even drier than normal. Parts of the Missouri Ozark foothills, and northern portions of southern Illinois toward I-64 barely received 8-9 inches for the summer, or up to 4 inches drier than normal.

This summer turned out to be one of the most humid ever. When people think back, they'll easily remember how many heat index warnings were issued -- Paducah had a heat index over 105 18 times, the most since 2010. But in a statistical paradox, Paducah only reached a temperature of 90 degrees 28 times, much lower than the average 42 days of 90 or more.

So this year, 67 percent of those 90-degree days reached humidity thresholds to warrant a heat advisory. In a normal summer, it's usually just 15 percent.

The heat and humidity spawned a lot of strong storms. The NWS issued a combined total of 345 warnings (Severe Thunderstorm, Tornado, and Flash Flood) which was the 2nd most on record for a summer season (the record 390 set in 2023) and nearly triple our summer average of 130 warnings. 

We set monthly records for number of tornado warnings in June (45) and August (10) along with setting the June record for most flash flood warnings (45). There more tornado warnings in August (10) than the previous 13 years combined! 

The summer's total of 59 tornado warnings shattered the previous summer record of 32 set back in 1998. There were 23 observed tornadoes in our forecast area this summer, which also shattered the previous summer record of 13 set in 2019.

But we can consider ourselves lucky that we don't live in upstate Illinois. So far this year, there have already been 210 tornadoes in Illinois, an all-time record. That smashes the historical average of 54 per year, and even outpaces the last three years, which have each surpassed 120 tornadoes per year.

Many meteorologists-- including AccuWeather -- have compiled data that shows the traditional Tornado Alley of the Great Plains has shifted east to the lower Mississippi and Ohio River valleys.

You can see the summer report from NWS Paducah here .