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Pattern May 2026

Looking at official rainfall totals, a large portion of AL, TN, N and C GA, NW SC to CAE, and NC including CLT received ample to very heavy (flooding) rainfall since yesterday! Fantastic news regarding the drought and kudos to the Euro Weeklies to being on top of this potential for several weeks.

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This is just from FFC:
MOST LOCATIONS
HAVE SEE ANYWHERE FROM 0.5" TO 1.5" OF PRECIP WITH SOME ISOLATED
LOCATIONS SEEING UPWARDS OF 2" TO 4". 1 LOCATION HAS SEEN 5.29"
(CSG).
Had less than an inch for most of April, and about 5 since, so a nice turn around here. Several terrific downpours mixed in.
 
Busted again on the rainfall forecast for the coastal plain areas. Lots of weekend events were canceled or postponed because we were expecting up to an inch today up until the overnight runs. Now we're bone dry until Monday when hopefully another chance materializes.
 
Yea the lack of hot sunny weather is the only reason we haven't completely combusted eastern NC and SC. Really hope we don't miss out again on Monday. ILM seems to think we won't but we were looking good 24hrs ago too.

Corn crop is effectively a month behind this spring outside of the very few areas with pivot irrigation due to drought. Hot weather with little or no rain will finish it off.
 
Thanks for posting. I’m in DC this week, but I saw the tracks were laid right over our area. My assumption was just over 3”, and you just confirmed that.

I just got back home today and I actually had 4.1" in my physical rain gauge. I'm pretty shocked by that actually.
 
I got only ~0.08” last night and only ~.01” during the daytime today, both pretty disappointing vs expectations. MTD as of 5/9 is ~1.3”, 1.2” of which fell one week ago (5/2) with a nice soaking 18 hour rain.
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Edit at 1:20 PM on May 10th: This morning after midnight (on 5/10) I once again got only a few hundredths, which puts me at ~1.35” MTD.
 
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It would appear that the various numerical models are not seeing the impacts of the El Nino episode now taking shape over the equatorial Pacific Basin.

If you review the various longer term forecast schemes and ensemble platforms, there is still a great deal of chaos with respect to development and placement of heat ridges. Although now weak, I expect a well-organized high-end moderate intensity at the 3.4 benchmark by August 1. On the argument that a stronger +ENSO signature is now likely, then heat ridges should be targeting both the West and the eastern third of the lower 48 states, with a gap or weakness between the two along and over the Mississippi Valley and Great Lakes. ButI am still seeing cold lows with the subtropical jet stream swing through California into Texas, this despite the fact that a) the Madden-Julian Oscillation has shifted to the eastern Indian Ocean and b) a new southern branch is growing below Hawaii with an eventual aim at the Gulf of Alaska. The GFS and CFS series, while not perfect, are the best fit for climatology and more extensive heat for late May and much of June. Thunderstorm impacts seem to be shifting into the Midwest and Great Lakes, which is where I would expect as we move out of Spring.

The NAEFS projection has a more likely placement with a cool Canada vs. warm/hot lower 48 states in Week 2, which I believe will remain if not expand during the month of June. Two things to keep your eye on for possible heatwaves: Ignore climatic indices (which are all the rage now in the weather community) and focus on 500MB structures. If heights are at 588dcm or higher, then that area and its immediate west and north will have extreme surface heating, especially when a core is well-defined (closed circulation present). Look also at water temperatures in the Pacific and Atlantic Basins, which if excessively warm will be supportive of intense Sonoran and Bermudan heat ridges. The gap between the two subtropical highs represents possible paths for disturbances (mesoscale or synoptic, tropical or baroclinic). A key element in temperature prediction, after all, is where rain is present, heat may be diminished. Dryness equates to potential heat, a lesson learned in such major torched summers such as 2011, 2012, 2016 and 2023. I think that heat chances will diminish over the eastern states after July 4, while the West and Central theaters (including Texas) will be hot from late June through the middle of September.





Prepared by Meteorologist LARRY COSGROVE on
Sunday, May 10, 2026 at 2:10 P.M. CT
 
One year ago: do Atlanta area and other peeps remember what happened? It was a pretty big deal!
 
12z NBM, looks to be drying up:
View attachment 195904

Yep saw it earlier on the NOAA QPF output. Just a shame. With the hot weather later this coming week I expect us in the eastern Carolinas to move into the worst drought category of D4. Gonna be a lot of dryland crops getting burned down with chemical because it's pointless to let them keep growing so stunted.
 
RRFS has more or less dried up for us too. One small complex of showers moving through NESC now but it won't amount to much. The worst drought areas east of I-95 look to stay dry.

It's unbelievable how many times we've been down this road since roughly Labor Day last year. After a wetter than average JJA the tap shut off and seemingly every time we're lined up for heavier rains in the forecast it vanishes the day before. The only thing that didn't vanish is the foot of snow in January so that's something I guess. It'd just be nice to get back to whatever state we were in pre-2021 where it actually rained semi-regularly instead of this drought/flood cycle we're stuck in.
 
WX ALERT: Severe Thunderstorm Warning issued for New Hanover, Brunswick, Pender co. until 5/11 1:30PM
 
Winner! Yes, indeed, the quake was a rather big deal one year ago today throughout ATL-AHN area as well as the rest of N GA, E TN, and the W Carolinas.
I used to carry earthquake insurance, but apparently, insurance companies no longer offer earthquake coverage in this area. It was cheap, and I thought it worthwhile since I have a poured basement with antique-style bricks in my man cave.
 
I used to carry earthquake insurance, but apparently, insurance companies no longer offer earthquake coverage in this area. It was cheap, and I thought it worthwhile since I have a poured basement with antique-style bricks in my man cave.
State Farm still offers with homeowners in Georgia! Unless that is a new change that just happened.
 
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