Needed Rain Falls in the Midwest and Central Great Plains

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Needed rains fell over the farmland of the Midwest and Great Plains where most crops were suffering from moisture stress. While some areas had too much (the red colors) and the rains interrupted wheat harvest in Oklahoma and Kansas, the vast majority welcome the rains. 

A closeup of Missouri and Kansas depicts the heaviest of the rains during the last 48 hours. 
More than 14 inches fell just northwest of St. Joseph. Nine inches of rain fell in central Missouri and in the Flint Hills of Kansas. 

The excessive rainfall forecast worked out very well. The shape below was posted Wednesday (scroll down) and depicted the area where heavy rains would occur from Thursday to this morning. 
While a small area of very heavy rain north northeast of Wichita was just outside of the polygon, all of the rest fell within. This represents a step forward in meteorology over the quality of forecast that could have been made as recently as 2010.

Additional heavy rains are forecasted to occur over the next three days. Again, these are forecasted to fall in areas where they are needed.

The six to ten day outlook shows the dry spell continuing to ease over most of the Farm Belt except for the northern Great Plains where extreme dryness continues.

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