Today’s event will not cool you off on a hot/summer day, but it is our #11th event on our Top 40 significant weather events. This event ended up costing around $1 billion dollars in our area (one of the most expensive events in our history).

This drought started with a record-warm March that started to dry out at the very end. That March saw 9 days above 80F in Paducah. That led to increased evaporation rates across the area as things dried out by March 20th. The official drought began in May and the heat wave in late June/July rapidly went from D1 (Moderate) to D3-D4 (Extreme to Exceptional) in many areas. Even the Bowing Green area had D2-D3 (Severe to Extreme Drought earlier) until some beneficial rains started to move into the area.

The heat wave from June 25th through July 19th featured a whopping 15 days of 100+F days in Paducah. Bowling Green reported a high of 110F on June 29th. July 2012 was the hottest month and July on record in Paducah and one of the hottest July’s on record in Bowling Green.

Why Was This Significant

July 2012 and the Summer of 2012 was the hottest and driest in Paducah. The drought mostly wiped out the corn crop over many areas and to make matters worse there was a surplus of corn planted which mean more damage. Other crops had significant damage as well. Some areas were asked to conserve water as well.

Links:

https://www.wkyufm.org/agriculture/2012-07-19/regional-corn-crop-has-been-decimated-by-drought-impacting-commodity-and-food-prices

https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/monitoring/monthly-report/drought/201208