Five inches in my yard...just a few blocks away! I expected to see a lake in my back yard, but I didn't see one.

Lisa

One inch almost exactly here. Just over 4 inches total Since July 1. Not near as much as most people, but still a good summer.

We got another 0.05", giving us a 2-day total from three separate 'rain storms' (I use the term rain storm loosely) of 0.08" of rain. Our mesonet station got about a third of an inch.

Our drought continues and everything that was green from the mid-July rainfall is rapidly turning brown as it dries out.

I wouldn't say it is a good summer here at our house in terms of rainfall, but it still is much better than the summer of 2011.

maybe I should not tell, after Dawn's paltry results?

3.36 inches. Wozer.

Moni

Moni,

I'm glad you got such good rain. It's missed us all year so I'm used to reading all of y'all's high totals, and sighing, and saying "maybe next time we'll get more".....lol. Sooner or later we'll get a decent rainfall amount here.

We just had a storm blow through a few minutes ago. Lots of dark clouds, thunder, etc. around dinner time. It moved through fast and gave us another 0.07". That is better than nothing. And then, the NWS issued a Severe Thunderstorm Warning. Some parts of our county, mainly between Enville and Overbrook are getting real heavy rain and, in some areas, ping pong ball sized hail reportedly fell for some time. So, if I have to take the ping pong ball sized hail to get the heavy rain, I'll pass.

There still are storms to our south on the radar. Maybe one of those will hit us and drop a little more rain. We've cooled down to 79 degrees from a high temp of 104. Most nights we've been in the 90s until almost midnight, so 79 degrees feels wonderful!

Dawn

5", pool flooded and brown, water blowing in sideways from the south managed to come in around the window frame and leak into the wall loudly last night ... good news is I heard it so know it needs to be fixed. Down the street two blocks, water up over the car hoods at the height of flash floods. Even a flash flood death about a mile away. Pretty crazy weather, given some 30% chance of rain yesterday.

I'm extremely grateful I planted those beautiful coneflowers Lisa brought over in planters.

They'd be swimming, otherwise. We have received rain almost every single time throughout this year

but without flooding!

I'll shuddup now.

we got 2 inches last night. Blew over 2 electric poles so lots of people out of electric last night. Some damage in the area but nothing severe. We had another one blow through this afternoon not sure how much we got in that one. I would think less than 1/4 in. I have never in my life complained about rain but my tomatoes had just quit spitting and they were right back at it this morning. Oh well it gives the cows grass. Have about 8 cantaloupes. Hope they dont split too. Gotta take the bad with the good.

Bad with the good...is the theme this year.

I really wish that Dawn and those of you in the same "boat" (ha! what boat? no rain!) would get some steady and welcome relief....drizzle would be nice, for about a week!!

Sharon

I'm so glad so many got beneficial rainfall. I hope Dawn receives some soon. It looks like the cooler days are around for awhile. Maybe two days in the low 90's this coming week. A chance of rain for several days. The rain sure has the buckwheat popping through the ground. The cabbage is starting also. Jay

We had 5 or 6 more little bands of showers run through here last night before sunset and that gave us a total of another 0.05", so our rainfall total for the week so far is about 0.20", and I'm grateful for every drop.

We are so far south that our weather is almost always more like the weather in Dallas-Fort Worth than in OKC, and this summer is a perfect example of that.

I'm looking forward to the cooler temperatures.

Dawn

We are just a few miles up the road from Dawn, and for once we got more rain (Friday evening) than most people around here. Usually we are in the dry hole. This time we had 2 1/4 inches, plus golfball sized hail coming down solidly for at least 20 minutes. We've had bigger hail here, but never had it come down for as long. Most of my remaining veggies are inside a shadecloth house and were protected, but my outside garden with cantaloupes and leeks got shredded. Still-- we are grateful for any and all rain we get! Flis

I'm hoping for 2+ inches in the next two days and then dry until Sept. I'm feeling optimistic! We need some runoff, and are still below average for the year in our area even though most of this 2/3 of the state is well above.

Hi Greenveggielover,

I'm glad you got great rainfall and sorry you got the hail. I was listening to the Love County radio channel on my VFD radio when the hail started falling and couldn't believe how long it fell up there. I heard that at one point people on the interstate stopped under the overpasses to protect their vehicles from hail, and that brought traffic on I-35 to a standstill. That's when you know for sure that major hail is falling. I was just cringing at the thought of all the damage it was doing. I'm sorry you lost your cantaloupes.

The next day after the storm, I heard a lot of trees had a bunch of leaves knocked off of them. Why is it that good rainfall had to be accompanied by such destructive hail?

Scott, I'm hoping right along with you, and am cautiously optimistic. I think this week will be the best chance for good rainfall that we've had in ages. Love County actually is above average (or, at least, our mesonet station is) for year-to-date rainfall, but most of it fell between mid-May and mid-July so that moisture is long gone, at least at our house. If we could get a couple of inches this week, we might make it out of moderate drought. Even being "Abnormally Dry" doesn't seen nearly as bad as being in drought, though the difference likely is a fairly small one.

My pond hasn't held significant water in three years now, so is reverting to forest. I never really thought that would happen, but it has.

I looked at the QPF today, and it shows us getting pretty good rainfall this week. I hope they are right. Last year there was a point in August at which the 5-day QPF showed us getting 2.7" and I was super-excited, and we got exactly nothing....a big fat 0.00". So, I am trying to be optimistic but the memory of last year's big fail is reining in my enthusiasm somewhat.

It is discouraging to be in the dry pocket when everyone around you is getting oodles of rain.

I hope that this week's rain hits the folks who need it, and doesn't cause serious flooding for the folks who've already had too much.

I'm going to link the 5-day QPF and people can read it and weep....or laugh....as the case may be. : )

When I looked at the 1-day QPF earlier this morning, I just rolled my eyes. It does show our area getting rain today--a whopping 0.01". I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for that big rainfall to occur today. In fact, the irrigation system is watering the garden right now because it needs water desperately and won't be able to wait another day or two for the rain to start falling.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful:

That graphic has changed significantly since last night. it shifted south and got more red.

We have had three 1 inch rains in the last 20 days and conditions are perfect, but I want my pond to fill up. Three inches will do it for sure. Two inches might.

Dawn, I have a pond that no longer holds water above the level it hit at the height of the drought. It has overflowed three times since but drops back 4 ft to the low level within 2 weeks of filling. Very depressing. The only answer outside of crazy high rainfall for a month or two might be to do some soil mixing and compaction, but this is prevented when trees start growing in the bed.

Dawn,

My fingers are crossed for a big rain (and no hail) for you tomorrow night!

Flis

How nice. The models have now shifted the precip further south overnight and tomorrow. Good for Dawn but now looks like I'll be lucky to get an inch.

Scott, I hope my chance of getting more rain doesn't mean you'll get less. That's not fair. Why can't we all get one good rainfall this week where it is needed, and not have the rain fall on already soggy ground where it is just likely to run off and cause flooding.

I haven't looked at the QPF since I linked it earlier today. I was afraid if I looked at it again, it would have changed and would show us getting nothing, and then I'd be depressed. Maybe I'll go look at it now.

We need to do work on the pond, starting with getting the trees out of there, but it is hard for Tim to find time to work on anything around here because the VFD work always takes up so much of his spare time. He's been perpetually behind on his "honey do" list ever since he joined the VFD in 2002...or maybe it was 2003. I've become resigned to the fact that nothing major on the list is likely to get done until he retires, which is still a few years away.

We are having some sort of rainstorm here (it looks better on the radar than in real life, I'm afraid), but I use the word rain loosely. Every now and then a rain drop falls, but mostly we just have thunder, so I'd say we've gotten about $5.00 worth of thunder in the last hour and a penny's worth of rain. (That is the story of our entire summer....)

Flis, Thanks. I'm very hopeful. I'm going to keep all my fingers crossed, and maybe my toes as well. It can't hurt and might help. Your end of the county looks pretty nice and green this week and I admit to being jealous!!!!

Today I was not going to water, but then everything just wilted like mad and even the zinnia leaves were all twisted and sagging and just sad-looking. So, I broke down and watered the whole back garden and half the front garden, but not an excessive amount of water----just enough to keep everything hanging on until tomorrow night's "good" rainfall is finally supposed to arrive here.

Tim is supposed to take a fire truck to a rural residence west of Marietta tomorrow morning so he can stand by for fire protection while that resident burns a big brush pile. He really wants to get it done tomorrow morning, so I hope the weather doesn't mess things up by raining too early and getting the brush pile all wet. After wishing for rain endlessly the last few weeks, now we're getting picky and hoping for the rain to hold off until the big brush pile has burnt. lol

Even though tonight's storms have mostly only brought us noise and little rain, the temperature plunged from the 90s to the upper 70s when the so-called rain arrived. I was excited. That was a big temperature drop! Well, the outdoor temp here is now back up to 82, so even the cooler air didn't stick around long.

I wouldn't be as worried about the lack of rain if the ground in our side yard wasn't cracking way too close to the house. Cracking ground is nothing unusual here with our clay soil and we have soaker hoses in place to keep the soil around the foundation moist so we've never had foundation trouble, but the soil is cracking in places it never has cracked before and we have had plenty of drought years since moving here in 1999. It is cracking near where the water line runs, and it is cracking right down the middle of the gravel driveway, and it is cracking where the water line runs from the house to the detached garage. I wish the ground would go crack someplace else where it isn't so likely to shift enough to break a water line! We have had water lines break both in the summer of 2011 and 2012 and I feel like it may be about to happen in 2013. (sigh)

With all the rain in May through mid-July, our ground should be in better shape....or at least I thought it would be. I feel like the cracking ground south of our residence may be an indication of how dry the soil is deep down after below-average rainfall in 2011 and 2012.

I've been hoping for a nice little (not-too-strong and not-too-damaging) tropical storm to hit the Texas gulf coast and send its remnants across Texas to us like Hermine did a few years back. We got about 7" of rain from Hermine and it was at a time we desperately needed it. The tropical weather season so far has been unimpressive though.

On the evening news they said the Sulphur area was likely to have enough rain tonight that flash flooding could be an issue. I hope they get the good rain without the damage and danger from the flooding.

Because I think good rainfall might actually happen here in the next day or two, I harvested half my watermelons today. I left the others because they were not quite ready, but if it rains hard, I may pick them right after the rain stops falling. I'd rather pick them a day or two early than have them crack and split and have their flavor watered down.

Dawn

Incredible amount of moisture!!

I haven't put my rosemary in the ground, yet. And I'm glad, too, for it would be too wet!!

Bon,

I have better success with rosemary in pots in wet years than in the ground because our ground just doesn't drain well enough in wet years. Even the raised beds that have well-amended clay can stay wetter than the rosemary likes for weeks or even months. I haven't tried growing it in the sandier soil out back, but may plant some there next year if spring is average to dry.

Obviously nothing in my garden has suffered from being too wet in quite some time now. I think the last issue I had that I could blame on too much rain was in late May or early June.

It is going to be hot here today and I have a lot of harvesting to do before it gets too hot, so I am about to head out the door. We are expected to hit about 96 degrees this afternoon, but it wouldn't hurt my feelings if the rain arrived earlier than expected here and cooled us down. As it is, I think our main rain event won't be until tonight or tomorrow morning, if the rain arrives at all.

Our mesonet station got about a half-inch last night, but we don't even have enough rain in our rain gauge for me to call it a hundredth of an inch. I guess we can say we got a 'trace' of rain.

If I thought I could "make" it rain a lot (or at all) here today by putting my rosemary in the ground, I'd sacrifice it by putting it in my worst, most slow-draining clay---sort of like daring Mother Nature to go ahead and throw a lot of rain at us.

The part of our forecast that stood out the most this morning was that they said storms with wind gusts of 50-60 mph could develop along the Red River this afternoon or evening. All I could think to myself was that I am going to be really upset if we get the potentially damaging winds without the rain!

Now, I'm going out to the garden to harvest southern peas, hot and sweet peppers, cucumbers, Armenian cucumbers, watermelons, okra, tomatoes and squash. I'm determined to harvest everything I can before it rains because maybe, just maybe, we'll get enough rain that the garden will be too muddy to venture into for the next couple of days. (If I am going to dream about rain falling, I might as well dream big.....so, here's hoping for lots of mud!)

Dawn

An inch for me since Sunday night. I wish I could send some of this to you all who need it so badly, but I am grateful for what we've gotten. I saw Aaron Tuttle, a former local weatherman, post on his Facebook today that we are in for a "nasty winter" and that we are in year four of a seven year drought cycle, and that back in 1915 in the middle of a 10 year drought there was an anomalous wet year, but back to drought the next. Hope we beat those averages and end the drought this year.

No rain again, or still. I am starting to sound like a broken record.

You know how people who live out in rural areas often have cute little names for their "ranchettes" or "farms", even if they aren't raising a single animal or edible crop? We joke that we should name our place "Passover" because the rain always manages to pass over, or pass nearby, without dropping anything here.

Mia, I hope we have a horrible winter down here in southern OK and that it rains, snows or sleets every day! lol You know that it won't happen here, no matter how much I hope for it. I'll just be happy if we can claw our way out of drought and if, sometime this year, I can look at a drought monitor map and see my area not shaded in with any color other than white.

Dawn

As I type, it is raining AGAIN. I need to pot up my rosemary now. Honestly, I need to move it onto the porch. I think it's been too wet this week.

they say it's the wettest year since 1850 and we're only half way through.

It's a crying shame I couldn't have a garden this year. I just started in on my rehab to reverse the curvature of my spine. Fall planting isn't looking too swell except from some easy access planters.

I do hope we get a normal wet winter to end the nasty drought.

so much for the "big" rain they were talking about...we got a measly 1/2 inch. :)

You know I've been spoiled when I'm complaining about only a 1/2 inch!

We got a half inch last night, too. Relieved there wasn't any flash flooding.

I've nearly decided to pull my three HUGE, vigorous, squash plants this weekend. They are almost chest high, and about four feet around each, and haven't produced a single squash. I planted them in May, and I think with all the rain they just haven't done a dang thing. They are in my way when I harvest tomatoes (and thanks to Helen, I am FREAKED about snakes! LOL), and because they've totally overtaken a path, I am using the unplanted bed next to them as my path - but that should be where the fall veggies go.

What say you, gardeners?!

Lisa, lol lol lol.....and here I am, celebrating and bouncing off the walls with excitement because we got just slightly under a half-inch. Our mesonet station recorded 0.47" and the amount in our rain gauge pretty much matches that.

We had a huge rushing wind with gusts into the 40s precede the arrival of the rain by almost a half-hour, so when the wind woke me up, I checked the weather on my phone and saw storms on the radar that I was pretty sure couldn't miss us. They didn't. The storm rolled through pretty fast. I was hoping it would stall over us and drop even more rain, but it didn't.

I am grateful for every drop that fell. I had watered the front garden Wed and the back garden yesterday, but didn't water it real heavily...just enough to keep everything alive and just barely hanging on until rain could fall, so the rain early this morning (around 3 a.m.) was really needed.

Mia, I say do what makes you happy. It is unusual to have plants that big that aren't blooming and setting fruit, but sometimes it happens in really wet years. I think it is more the "fault" of having too many cloudy, cool days than it is the rain itself. Do they bloom at all and not get pollinated or do they just sit there and make more green leaves non-stop?

I live "freaked out" about snakes. Normally I see them often enough that it keeps me on my toes, and I think that is important. All my friends always say that when you consider all the time I spend outdoors in a really snakey area, it is a wonder I haven't been bitten by a venomous snake. I agree with them. I have stepped on venomous snakes, stepped over them, had them within 3" of my hand (I did a backwards somersault to get away from that pygmy rattler and am grateful no one was around to see it), etc. and just marvel that somehow I've never been bitten. My old farmer/rancher neighbors warned me early and often when we first moved here and, I think, in a sense that they taught me to be more careful by telling me stories that "scared the fool out of me", to quote a favorite local phrase.

My favorite weather is heavy flooding like we had in 2007. After all that rain fell and the Red River flooded and then stayed high and out of its bank for ages, I barely saw any snakes at all for at least a year. It was wonderful....almost like living back in the city again.

Dawn