News
Bottineau has seen a great deal of rain but far from record
Scott Wagar
08/13/2013
The city of Bottineau has experienced large amounts of rain since March of this year with the month of July seeing 4.38 inches of rain. The steady rain has kept individuals speaking about the rain all summer long with concerns that the precipitation is close in breaking some historical weather records in the community. However, the rainfall Bottineau has seen these past months have not come close to the monthly amounts of rainfall that have been placed in the record books.
According to the National Weather Service for 2013, out of the first seven months of the year Bottineau broke four of the seven months’ average records for precipitation, but no records in monthly rainfall were broken.
January through March saw the following totals:
January precipitation was 0.38 inches. The average for January is 0.45 inches with the Bottineau’s rain record being set in 2011 with 1.39 inches.
FEBRUARY
February saw a total rainfall being 0.73 inches. The average is 0.41 inches and the record for Bottineau was 4.10 inches in 1902.
MARCH
In March, the city had 1.48 inches of rain. The average for the month is 0.69 inches with the record for March being in 1902 with 3.85 inches.
APRIL
The month of April saw 0.51 inches of rain. The average rainfall for this month is 1.02 inches with the record coming in 1975 with 7.30 inches in Bottineau.
MAY
Precipitation for May for the year equaled 2.52 inches. The average for May is 2.18 inches with the city’s record being 6.50 inches in 1944.
JUNE
June saw 3.13 inches. The average for the month is 3.46 inches with the record being the highest total in Bottineau’s history at 12.03 inches in 1944.
JULY
The most rain so far this year came in July with Bottineau seeing 4.38 inches. The average is 2.54 with the monthly record taking place in 1987 with 6.96 inches.
As for Bottineau setting a new yearly record concerning rainfall, the city will have to see 16.75 inches of precipitation in the next five months.
“If Bottineau gets a total of 30.44 inches for the year, then that will be a record according to the COOP site in that area.
“So far Bottineau has measured 13.69 inches,” said Richard Krolak of the NOAA Federal Weather Bureau. “According to the climate outlook, the remainder of the year shows equal chances of either above or below normal precipitation. My guess would be that it is unlikely that Bottineau will break the annual record.”