The recent snowfall in Central Illinois hasn’t done enough to overcome the area's drought that's lasted for months.
State climatologist Trent Ford with the Illinois State Water Survey said the last six months are the driest August-to-January period on record for the Twin Cities at 7.1 inches of precipitation, according to climate records dating back to 1893.
The only drier six-month period came during the Dust Bowl period, stretching from December 1933 to May 1934.
Much of eastern and southern McLean County is in a severe drought. Parts of eastern Illinois, including Champaign-Urbana, are in an extreme drought.
The city of Bloomington has requested residents and business conserve their water use until water levels at Lake Bloomington and Evergreen Lake improve.
The drought continues despite several measurable snow events in recent weeks.
“This snowpack can be deceiving. In fact, the soils, especially the deeper soils are very dry under that snowpack,” Ford said. “Although folks don’t like wet snow, a spring snow, a really stormy, rainy spring, that’s really what we need.”
Bloomington-Normal and Peoria both saw just under 5 inches of snow in January, close to 3 inches below average, according to Ford.
January was also colder than usual—an average of 22 degrees in Bloomington-Normal and 23 for Peoria. That's despite a prolonged warm spell the first part of the month. Temperatures ranged from the 60s in early January—to 10-below zero in late January.
“That swing was really quite incredible,” Ford said.
6 weeks of winter
The groundhog predicted 6 more weeks of winter. So does Illinois' climatologist.
Ford said we can generally expect below normal temperatures for the rest of winter. Ford said there are no signs of an early spring, other than milder temperatures next week.
“It will feel like an early start to spring next week, that second full week of February, but it does look like better chances of colder air moving back in the latter half of February.
“Don’t plant your peppers yet.”
