For much of the state of Louisiana, the heavy rains of March and August were too much, too soon, and at one time. It's hard to believe that areas that were once inundated by three, four, and even five feet of water are now officially listed as being in drought conditions. 

73% of Louisiana is currently in a drought, that's according to the state's Climatologist Barry Keim. The other 27% of the state is in a condition known as abnormally dry. While March in North Louisiana and August in South Louisiana produced record rainfall, the month of October was the 5th driest on record.

Over the past 5 weeks, the state of Louisiana has averaged less than a half inch of rain, whereas 4.6 inches is considered normal for this time period. So we basically had about 10% of normal rainfall.

Those remarks by Keim were reported in a story published by the Louisiana Radio Network. 

Keim says that while lawns and gardens are suffering there is a bit of silver lining to the very dry conditions the state has seen this past month.

The sugarcane farmers are loving this dry weather because it's great for the harvest this time of year.

The outlook for the next ten days does not show any real chances of rain either. The best chance of a passing shower might come later this week when a cold front is expected to pass through the state. Even with that frontal passage rain chances will be 20% or less across almost all of Louisiana.

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