Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
CNJ staff reports
Clovis is on pace for its wettest year in more than a decade after an early-morning thunderstorm dropped seven-tenths of an inch of rain on the city on Saturday.
Weather watcher Nancy McPherson said Clovis has received 2.92 inches of rain in August and 16.64 inches for the year. If the city sees an average amount of rainfall for the rest of the year, the total will be close to 22 inches. Clovis hasn’t had a year that wet since 1992, when moisture totaled 23.37 inches, according to statistics from the Western Regional Climate Center.
Keith Hayes, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Albuquerque, said the region can expect normal rainfall for the rest of the year.
“Our best chance of getting stuff is in this period now, through August and into early September,” Hayes said, “then it kinda wanes after October and November. You just don’t (normally) get a lot of effective moisture in the fall on the eastern plains.”
Hayes said storms were expected to form over De Baca County on Saturday night and should track into the Clovis-Portales area early this morning.
Rain chances were expected to fall off early this week, then pick up again on Wednesday or Thursday, he said.
McPherson, an official recorder for the NWS, said Clovis has had rain on nine different days his month. Saturday’s total was the fifth time in 16 days she recorded more than a quarter-inch of moisture.
The city averages about 17.8 inches of moisture per year, but hasn’t hit that average since 1999, WRCC records show. Clovis averaged 15.8 inches of moisture from 2000 to 2003.
Average rainfall
Clovis’ average precipitation by month: (Year-to-date cumulative averages in parenthesis)
January: 0.45
February: 0.43 (0.88)
March: 0.66 (1.54)
April: 1.04 (2.58)
May: 2.03 (4.61)
June: 2.62 (7.23)
July: 2.59 (9.82)
August: 2.95 (12.77)
September: 2.12 (14.89)
October: 1.72 (16.61)
November: 0.59 (17.20)
December: 0.60 (17.80)
Source: Western Regional Climate Center
