A wet and very warm start to October
It's been a wet stretch as of late for all of Michiana, and even some communities have racked up impressive totals over the last 3 or 4 days. Going all the way back to October 4th, some, like Plymouth, Knox, and Elkhart, have picked up over 2 inches of rain. This most likely lead to some minor flooding or street flooding Friday night into Saturday morning as a number of storms kept rolling over the same areas from Knox all the way to Goshen. Others got a little bit of a break like Niles and even right here at the station, picking up less than an inch and a half.
Even though it seems like we're off to a hot start, this is actually somewhat normal rainfall numbers for this time in October and the fall season. When you take a look at the departures, we're really not that far away from normal in either category. All of this rain is still keeping those lawns and plants nice and green, much cooler and drier weather is not far behind.
The warm weather is really what's keeping all of these bugs around. In fact, some records could fall today because we're so warm! Getting into the mid 80s would definitely tie some records set back in the 1900s.
Mosquitoes are just a small part of typical summertime conditions, but there's been some extra concern this year with the spread of West Nile virus in portions of Michiana. Some mosquitoes are known carriers of the virus and the warm weather and the wet stretch of recent days continues to make for the perfect environment for them to stick around.
And we've been dealing with a lot of rain recently, so there may be some pockets of standing water in isolated spots. That's a perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes! Since highs will be climbing into the mid 80s again today, and even the 70s tomorrow, those pesky bugs will still be out and about over the next couple of days. But, thanks to the drastic flip in temperatures later this week, we'll see their activity completely fall off the table by the the end of the week. And...good news for all of you fall allergy sufferers, with patchy frost in the forecast Friday night into Saturday morning, it looks like allergy season is in its final few days as well!