Macon County sweated through Missouri's warmest September on record, but unlike much of southern Missouri it got enough rain to come out of the month with no dryness on the drought map.
The weather station at Atlanta in northern Macon County averaged 74.6 degrees for September and hit 101 degrees on Sept. 5, according to NOAA data from the Applied Climate Information System. The station, part of a fire-weather network, has no 30-year normal to compare against.
The nearest long-term station, at Kirksville Regional Airport, averaged 72.7 degrees, 7.2 degrees above normal, and topped out at 98 on Sept. 5. Salisbury, in neighboring Chariton County, hit 103 on Sept. 6.
Statewide, September averaged 77 degrees, 8.4 degrees above average, according to University of Missouri Extension state climatologist Zachary Leasor, citing NOAA figures. That beat the old September record of 74.8 degrees, set in 1931, by 2.2 degrees.
"It was exceptionally warm and generally dry across Missouri," Leasor said in the Extension release Monday.
Rain was the difference here. Leasor said most of northern Missouri received average to above-average rainfall, while many places in southwest and south-central Missouri got less than an inch. Statewide, September rain averaged 2.82 inches, 1.11 inches below average.
Volunteer rain gauges in and near Macon County ran ahead of normal. A gauge 7.3 miles north of Callao caught 5.97 inches for the month with no missed days, according to ACIS data from the CoCoRaHS network. Kirksville's airport recorded 6.99 inches, 3.34 inches above normal, with one day missing. To the south, gauges in Moberly ran about 1 to 1.6 inches below normal.
The wet stretch showed up on the U.S. Drought Monitor. The map valid Sept. 8 had all of Macon County abnormally dry. By the Sept. 29 map, none of the county was, and the latest map, valid Oct. 6, still shows 100% of the county with no dryness or drought, according to monitor county statistics. Statewide, 44% of Missouri was in at least moderate drought and 15.27% in extreme drought, according to the Drought Monitor figures in the release.
The drought damage was concentrated in southwest and south-central Missouri, where Extension specialists reported dried-up pastures, stressed late soybeans, low ponds, and burn bans, according to the release.
Leasor said El Niño conditions in the Pacific favor a wetter pattern for Missouri. "Late fall and winter rainfall will be critical for drought recovery," he said.