It’s been a very wet start to the school year with Manhattan receiving 3.97 inches of rainfall since the start of the semester Monday.
But is this rainfall anything out of the ordinary?
Audra Hennecke, a meteorologist at the Topeka bureau of the National Weather Service, said it’s not uncommon to get large amounts of rain like this week’s in a short amount of time.
“Throughout the year, we have been pretty dry,” Hennecke said. “This year isn’t much different from other dry years we have had in the area of rainfall. Usually we will have a few days or a week out of a dry year where we get a large amount of rain in a short amount of time, so this isn’t abnormal for us.”
Drainage, rather than amount of rain, has been more of an issue for the area, Hennecke said, with localized flooding due to poor drainage.
Reagan Smith, freshman in open option, said the weather has made getting around and driving harder.
For others, like Moe Bisheh, graduate student in engineering, the rain has had a dampening effect on motivation to get to campus outside of classes.
Despite the recent rains, much of the area — including Manhattan — remains in a severe drought.
“We still need several more inches of rain to help us out of this drought,” Hennecke said.
The early weekend should be mostly sunny with highs in the low to mid 90s. Expect a chance for thunderstorms Saturday night through Sunday.