Heavy rain pelted the Saint Joseph area Wednesday, saturating the ground ahead of potentially heavy rain and flash-flooding Wednesday night.

By mid-day Wednesday the National Weather Service recorded 2.33 inches of rain in Saint Joseph since early morning. Almost an inch, .98, fell in one hour alone, between 1 and 2 pm. The day’s rain came on top of .53 of an inch on Tuesday.

Rainfall for the month to date has now exceeded 5 inches, about 3 times normal for what is usually a fairly dry month.