NATCHEZ &045; If you think it’s been unusually dry so far this year, it’s because it has been. Farmers and gardeners are desperate for rain.

And late today will be the best chance for rain to fall in the Miss-Lou, especially Natchez itself, over the next seven days.

&uot;There is a cold front coming in over the next 36 hours,&uot; AccuWeather meteorologist Mike McAuliffe said Friday afternoon. &uot;There will be a couple of showers and a thunderstorm. We look for rainfall amounts of a quarter to a half an inch.&uot;

There is a 50 to 60 percent chance of rain tonight as the front approaches, but if rain doesn’t fall in your yard don’t look for any rain after that as the sky clears behind the front and the temperature cools down once again after record-breaking heat earlier in the week.

&uot;So far this month we’ve had no rain. That is very unusual,&uot; McAuliffe said. &uot;So far this year we’ve had 17.26 inches of rain. The normal should be 26.48.&uot;

That’s a deficit of 9.22 inches. However, that’s not the biggest rainfall deficit Natchez has had to deal with. In fact, there were two previous years in which the rainfall amount has actually been lower than it has been this year.

McAuliffe noted that in 2003, only 16.61 inches had fallen in the city. In 2002, just 16.65 inches of rain had been reported as of mid-May.

So what is the reason for the lack of rainfall this year in the city?

&uot;The problem is the flow (jet stream) has been from the west and northwest,&uot; McAuliffe said. &uot;A lot of times the rain dies out before it gets to us.&uot;

Even though there were pop-up showers late Friday in parts of Adams County, Natchez itself remained high and dry.