May will end as wettest month so far in 2020

You wouldn’t know it by the sunshine and warm temperatures this week, but the month of May will end as the  wettest month so far this year.
 Through May 26, the west end of the Treasure Valley has received a soaking with 1.74 inches of rain, which is .80 inches above average, according to the National Weather Service.
 Rainfall totals around the valley and region in May varied, but many locations saw more precipitation for the month than average, including Boise (1.86 inches), Ontario (1.74 inches), McCall (1.85 inches) and even Rome, Ore., (1.39 inches).
 A record was set on May 20 for the most rain ever on that date in a couple of locations. Boise received .76 inches of rain, breaking the old record of .56 inches set in 1985.
 Baker City saw a record fall with .53 inches of rain on May 20, breaking the old record of .49 inches set in 1960.
  May’s rain followed a fairly dry April in most locations. April was below average in the amount of precipation with a scant .30 inches of rain for the month, which was .50 inches below average.
 March was also below average with .81 inches of moisture, which was .20 below average, and so was February’s rain total at .32 inches, which was .48 inches below average.
 The last month with precipation totals that were above average was January, with 1.48 inches of rain. The total for the month was .30 inches above average.
 Most Weiser-area farmers were done planting this year’s crop of wheat and onions in April, weeks before the rain arrived. The rain lessened the amount of irrigation water those crops needed.
 The May 1 water outlook released by the Natural Resources Conservation Service indicated that
warm and dry weather melted most of the snowpack below 6,000 feet in central and west central Idaho during April.
 The West Central basins did not receive much precipitation in April. Monthly precipitation totals compared to normal were 55 percent, 62 percent, and 61 percent for the Weiser, Payette, and Boise river basins, respectively.
 The NRCS said the region could experience increasingly higher than normal snowpack melt rates for the remainder of the season due to current snowpack conditions and the forecasted warm, dry weather.
 Above 6,000 feet, SNOTEL sites in the west central basins range from 10 percent melted to more than 50 percent melted as of May 1. All sites below 6,000 feet are melted out except for the two most northern sites – Bear Basin and West Branch.
 The National Weather Service is forecasting hot weather this week in Weiser. The temperatures could hit 98 degrees on Friday and up to 100 degrees on Saturday.