We woke up to cloudy skies and the hope of rainfall, but for many, not a drop fell. The feeling was similar to a January morning with expectations of snow, only to find it skirting by only miles away.

A band of heavy rain and thunderstorms set up last night, prompting flash flood warnings from Kansas to Arkansas. Rain amounts in a narrow corridor from Wichita to Little Rock were excessive, with some spots receiving more than half a foot of rainfall.

Heavier rains clipped Southwest Missouri from Cassville to Harrison, but all in all, this is a disappointment with a hard northern edge to the rain shield. Dry air won the fight locally with little to no rain falling east of a Lamar, MO, to Mtn. Home, AR, line.

All of this adds up to bad news as the developing drought worsens. The latest dro

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