It certainly has been a rollercoaster ride this month in terms of unseasonably warm temperatures and little precipitation in the Raccoon Valley Radio listening area.

According to the National Weather Service, as of Christmas Day Jefferson has had 0.20-inches of precipitation, Perry 0.18 and Guthrie Center only has a trace amount. That’s well below the average of just over one-inch of precipitation. However, those levels could catch up this weekend. The National Weather Service is calling for 1-1.5-inches of rainfall for Greene, Dallas and Guthrie counties starting tonight through Saturday. Weatherology Meteorologist Megan Mulford explains the weather pattern that has led to the recent dry conditions is similar to June and July.

“You get what you call ‘An upper level ridge,’ just how the jet stream is positioned. If you can think of it, it kind of looks like a big hill, and what that does is that blocks all of that cold air and keeps it low off to the north and brings all that warm air from the Gulf of Mexico. It basically causes for sinking air, and when you have sinking air aloft, you really can’t form any sort of big systems. You might have your little bits of rain here and there, or snow, but really it causes for weather to be dry.”          

Mulford says this weekend’s precipitation should be the final strong chance to see rain or snowfall for the rest of the year.