We are "abnormally dry" here...

The bugs are ridiculous. I can't walk out to my veggie garden without getting eaten alive.

Conditions are good here. But as always some areas miss the spotty rain. Here in the central Appalachians, May is the wettest month & rain on average gradually decreases & gets spottier as the summer progresses, culminating in relatively dry Augusts and Septembers, unless tropical moisture arrives. Fortunately, at least here in bottomlands, the water table is high enough that trees are rarely hurt by any drought, tho forests on steep mountainsides and/or thin soils can be (and trees on the often scraped/compacted residential lots and urban areas). Of course, annual crops are much more dependent on the immediate rain, tho I think the latest strains of corn are quite drought-resistant once established.

Yes, subtropix, the further east you go in MD, the later in the warm season is the rain maximum (August/Sept along the coast). Plus, the situation has changed from early in the 1900s, when July instead of May was the rain max here in western MD.

It is interesting that the wettest month has changed from July to May (although they are still very close, almost within the margin of error) where you are, Beng. At BWI, “officially” I think July still edges out May. My native hometown of Akron, Ohio, also has July as the wettest month, but May is also pretty close.

A few observations living here…

West of the mountains, the pattern is similar to anywhere west of there as far as the Mississippi, where the rainfall peaks in late spring/early summer. As you go east, you get a bit of a rain shadow, most pronounced in the Shenandoah Valley, but there’s still a slight one east of the Blue Ridge since most weather moves West to East. We see this a lot, when nice looking storms around Western MD and VA fizzle out by the time they get to Frederick. Sometimes they flare right back up, but that seems to depend on wind direction. Southeasterly winds often just keep them going right over the mountains without a blink (or they even intensify).

Also, as you go east, you get more influence from tropical systems and even Noreasters later in the fall, which creates annual precip totals a bit higher than western MD, but a bit less in some parts of the summer.

August and September here are usually on the drier side by default – although the humidity is still there, the air is more “stable” (hot higher up in the atmosphere), which subdues convective storms a bit, and, frontal systems are weaker. When we do get significant rains at that time of year, it’s typically due to either a direct hit from something tropical (or remnants thereof) or a front that sucks in moisture from a tropical system.

All in all, this is why, despite the month to month differences, annual rainfall across the state doesn’t vary all that much from driest to wettest location, even though the timing during the year varies.

As always, we are about a week away from being very dry once the temps get into the high 80's. Of coarse, low dips and swampy areas take longer to dry out but I'm talking high ground where you are supposed to be able grow things. Precip. has been very spotty with intense isolated thunderstorms just missing us on both sides last night (we got a smattering of rain). Chance of rain again tonight.

Atlanta has had a very mild year so far with a lot of rain. 25% more rain than average and almost 40% more rain than this time last year. It has been raining almost every day it seems. We have had very few, if any, days above 90 degrees so far.

Luckily, we have not had any major tornado outbreaks this year. Only one outbreak of 2 or 4 EF0 to EF1s, I believe.

We are still under water restrictions, however. Lake Lanier is the main (man-made) lake supplying the Chattahoochee River here. Lanier is about 90 minutes northeast of town. The area that feeds the lake hasn't received much rain (still in a moderate drought actually) so the lake is about 6 feet below full. The Chattahoochee watershed is rather narrow but covers most of the majority of metro Atlanta's main counties.