National Weather Service United States Department of Commerce

Excessive Rainfall and Significant Flooding in the Upper Midwest This Weekend

Heavy to excessive rainfall is expected over the weekend across eastern Iowa, northern Missouri, northwest Illinois and southern Wisconsin. Numerous flash floods, some with significant impacts, are expected in these areas. Heaviest rainfall will occur overnight Saturday and Sunday, so be sure to have multiple ways to receive warnings. Read More >

 Central Valley
March-April-May Precipitation

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Statistics for stations In the Rio Grande Valley, particularly Socorro, exhibit a fair amount of variability during La Niña events.  While the average precipitation deficit during strong events is about 47% at Albuquerque, it is 72% at Socorro and higher than the average departure for all events. Additionally, during three of six strong events, spring precipitation was above normal.  Note that Socorro is quite dry during the March-April-May period (average precipitation = 1.46 inches), typical of the lower Rio Grande Valley and southwest New Mexico, and just one wet event can raise the average to above normal.  At Albuquerque, all springs during which a strong La Niña was present had below normal precipitation. 

 A description of the graphs is located at the bottom of the page. 

spring precip for albuquerque during la nina events 
 Percent of Longterm Average for all La Niña Events = 67%  , for strong La Niña Events = 47% 
 
spring precip for socorro during la nina events 
Percent of Longterm Average for all La Niña Events = 54%  , for strong La Niña Events = 72% 
 

Precipitation values for 3-month periods during 19 La Niña Events since 1949-50 are plotted with respect to the long term precipitation average, listed to the right of the graph.  The precipitation totals for each 3-month period are plotted above or below each bar.  Years for which the La Niña Event was considered to be strong are colored in purple.  "M" represents a 3-month period with missing data. Finally, the percents of longterm normal for all La Niña events and for the strong La Niña events are listed below each graph.