Scattered rain showers throughout western and central North Dakota this morning have delivered minimal relief for the region when it comes to softening the effects of drought conditions and fire danger.
Todd Hamilton is a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Bismarck. He says this morning, about seventeen-hundredths of rain fell in the Bismarck-Mandan area.
"As it came through western North Dakota late last night and early this morning, rainfall amounts were a lot lighter, a lot less widespread, with little or no accumulating rain over western North Dakota, especially the northwest part of the state that has seen a lot of fire activity for the past month or so. In that regard, it would have been nice to have more up that way, but certainly - for instance, here in Bismarck, the last time we had more than we had today was back on August 14 - most people remember in Bismarck and Mandan, that's when we had our flooding rains in the Bismarck-Mandan area. Since that rainfall, we have not had seventeen-hundredths of an inch of rainfall."
Hamilton says for the rest of the day, the eastern half of the state has a better chance of receiving precipitation. He says a warming trend will begin over the weekend, with another chance of rain coming on Monday into Tuesday – but those amounts are currently forecasted to be light. He also says no larger systems are expected over the next fourteen days.
Hamilton says models trend toward a La Nina weather pattern for winter, which points toward a warmer, dry fall and a colder winter with a toss up for snow totals.
He says North Dakotans should remain mindful of weather conditions that encourage fire danger.