After weeks of hot, dry weather that plunged Columbus into drought conditions, rainfall reached a record high Friday, as remnants of Hurricane Helene hit central Ohio.
Columbus saw 1.44 inches of rain Friday, breaking a previous record for Sept. 27 of 1.29 inches of rain in 1886, according to the National Weather Service in Wilmington. The highest rainfall in a single day for the area in all of September happened Sept. 12, 1940, when the weather service recorded 3.59 inches of rain.
Despite the much-needed rain, the state Fire Marshal’s office extended an open burn ban to include more counties Friday. As of 10 a.m. Saturday, over 1,000 AEP customers near Columbus remained without power.
“The rain we’ve had is certainly nice and is a breath of fresh air in some regards, but it’s in no way close to replacing the amount of moisture we need to have in our soil in the affected burn ban areas,” State Fire Marshal Kevin Reardon said Friday in a prepared news release. “It’s just not enough.”