Diane,

I saw this on our county's weather page this afternoon It seems like we are getting the rain now that so many folks didn't have last spring. (sigh)

Maybe at least tomorrow we'll have a good day before the rains return with a vengence on Thursday.

I've linked the NWS's Norman office webpage that covers the forecast for western, northern, central and southern OK. You can click on any county shown on the map at the bottom of the page to see the forecast for that county. For the affected counties that are not already severely waterlogged, the rain issue shows up under the "Special Weather Statement". For the counties that are waterlogged and more likely to flood (mostly in the eastern part of the state), a Flood Watch has already been issued for Thursday. How's that for a little advance notice?

I'd say that if anyone has sweet potatoes or fall potatoes or fall carrots that are ready to dig "right now", it might be better to dig them before the heavy rains arrive, if possible.

Diane, are y'all floating away over there? Our rain here was very light today, so we're not...but it is sticky wet clay time here.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Enhanced Weather Page

And, I went and found the Tulsa NWS page for those of you in eastern OK and the adjacent parts of Arkansas. It is linked below.

Note that some counties in Arkansas already have had a Flood Watch issued as well!

Here is a link that might be useful: Tulsa NWS Webpage

Yep, we're still pretty soggy. Because it has been raining so much, I've not even bothered to dump out the rain gauge regularly but I know we got well over an inch again today.

Glub, glub, glub...

Diane

I am in NE Oklahoma and am getting poured upon. The floodgates have been opened!! It has been raining here all day long. My backyard is completely flooded and my road in front is almost under. There are two kildeer in the back wading the water. They seem to be looking for their eggs. I feel so bad for them. My fall garden that I haven't watered in a few days is getting all the water it needs now!! The frogs will probably be up around the house again. We find frog holes all the time around here. I hope the rain stops soon. The Neosho River is expected to flood AGAIN!! A little rain is ok, but we don't need all little rains at once!!

It still isn't here in southern OK yet. We've been watching the skies all day and have had lots of wind and high humidity (started out at 100% this a.m.) and clouds streaming overhead, headed north, all day long. I think it will be here in another 2 or 3 hours.

I understand there's quite a lot of flooding near you, Mspringgs, and the Neosho River is acting up again....but, so far, it is not expected to flood as badly as it did in 2007. I guess if it keeps raining and raining the next few days, that might change.

I agree that a little rain is good, but too much at once is not good. We had over a foot of rain in one day in April and it was horrible.

Dawn

The rain here started around 8:00 AM yesterday morning and hasn't stopped yet! We are at 6 inches and counting. Thankfully, we are not near any streams and flooding isn't an issue for us.

How about the rest of you?

I an hoping the drought part of Texas is getting rain.

Tahlequah is completely waterlogged. I don't think we'll try to go anywhere today. I had to change clothes before finishing chores last night: got drenched to the skin.

George

I have a rain guage that we call "less than accurate" because there is a very high tree branch above it which usually makes it a little less than the station measurements. Not this time. My DH emptied 3 inches last night and another 3 this morning. Believe me, six inches of rain makes everything really soggy. I hope the rest crosses over into Arkansas before it comes this far north. We have had more than enough.

Our rain gauge is broken but the rain filled up the bird bath, which was empty, and made a lake in my back yard. The Tulsa TV news station said we only got 2.5" but our local Cable station said 5", and it was still raining at the time. They did not have to close HWY123 and that's always the first around here to close.

It's cold and wet today. I went out to pick the last of the beans that I didn't get on Wednesday, noticed my Jerusalem Artichokes had fallen over and the chokes clustered around the base were sticking up out of the ground. I just really wasn't expecting that. I cut off the top half of the plants, pushed the roots back into the mud and put some hay on top. George, will this be sufficient? I actually intended to only go dig some as needed, rather than try to harvest them all at once. I don't have a root cellar or even a basement so I don't know how I'd store them otherwise.

Yesterday I put together a big pot of vegetable stew, starting with the left-over broth and bits of a beef roast, and adding tomatoes, okra, onion, immature WBPP, beans, carrots, cabbage, and zucchini, all from the garden, or from the freezer from past gardens. I just love stew.

I got a little over 2.50 inches in my gauge, that was enough for me :)

Lisa

We only got three inches, and the rain really didn't start falling here until sometime after 10 p.m last night. We're in great shape....just mud and puddles, no flooding anywhere in our county that I've heard.

I've linked the current Drought Monitor map which included reported rainfall through Tuesday. As you can see by looking at it, OK is in fine shape--probably the best shape its been in overall in at least a year.

In Texas, the drought is ebbing away slowly. Parts of it still look pretty bad on the linked map, but they're improving weekly.

I am starting to laugh at DH and his fire department buddies. They keep telling me "it is going to be a bad fire season as soon as this rain stops". I have started telling them "no, it isn't". The weather this year is so completely different from what we've had the last four years that I am not at all concerned about the winter fire season. I'm more concerned we're in for months of heavy rainfall, courtesy of El Nino, and that we're going to have a hard time planting in spring because everything is going to be very waterlogged.

I still have a wonderful garden....still producing peppers (ugh--I've had more than enough of them), okra, green beans, corn, winter squash, tomatoes and cucumbers. I've got broccoli and cabbage going for fall/winter crops. They all need sunlight to grow though, and that seems in short supply.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Drought Monitor Map for Southern Region

Seven inches here this week, with six of that falling last night. Too much, entirely too much, following the 13.9 we got in Sept and 10 in Aug. And judging from the look of my bruised lettuce this morning, it was a pelting rain. I just so badly wish we had a pond or cistern, or above ground swimming pool to save some in to use next summer when we will probably have drought.

My okra has given up as have the tomatoes and I don't think I am going to get anything off the fall cucs, blooming but no fruit. Have lots of mustard and turnips coming along good. French Breakfast radishes ready to eat, but winter radishes planted at the same time not ready yet. Did pick two 50 ft rows of green beans this past week, which are ok but not as tasty as they would have been if they'd had decent sun. I am afraid the cabbage, chinese cabbage, brussels sprouts and broccoli aren't goingto make anything before it freezes them out.

Dorothy,

Y'all have had so much rain since August that it is just crazy. I'm sorry it is having such an adverse affect on your garden.

My cukes are not doing as well as I'd hoped, and seemed stalled...lots of foliage, vine and bloom, but pollination is iffy at best. However, on the one day a week we have an hour or two of sun, some of the flowers will get pollinated and I'll have a bunch of cukes all at once. We haven't gotten enough yet to satisfy my pickle-making ambitions, but bit by bit I'm getting there. I finally have bread-and-butter pickle slices, dill slices, whole dills, sweet pickle relish, dill stackers and sweet stackers done and in the cellar. If the small cukes now on the vine get big enough all at once, I'll make dill relish and dill spears. It has been a long, tortured fall garden season with slow maturing though.

I don't know if my winter crops will make before it gets too cold either, but so far they at least are not drowning.

We had an hour of sunlight the day before yesterday....one whole hour....and it was heavenly. I ran out to the garden and gave the sweet corn, cukes and okra a pep talk during that one hour of sunlight.

Expecting cold nights here this weekend, but not freezing cold.

Dawn

We ended up with several inches as well. Our rain gauge is still in an awkward place but our best guess is 5-ish inches. Lots of flooding seen as we had to drive around yesterday. I'm glad we live on the side of a hill!

Diane

We had about 6-7" of rain here. Miami, which is about 10 miles from me, is flooding once again. I can't even get there by my regular route because the creek is flooding across the road, so they closed the road. There are several families in Miami that had to evacuate. There is a small creek by my in-laws that was running over the road and I'm sure Grand Lake is definitely up!! My tomatoes were treading water and now tredging mudd!! This rain has just probably put the nail in the coffin for my fall onions that I planted. I'm sure that they are probably rotten after this one. They just haven't had time to dry out!! Makes me so sad. I really wanted my onions to succeed as this was my first. I still have carrots that seem to be growing and my lettuce is still alive. Hopefully, I'll get some carrots and lettuce still yet.

DH and I drove to Siloam Springs Fri afternoon and as we crossed the Illinois River north of Watts I was frustrated because there was no way to see over the concrete barrier on the sides of the new bridge to see how high the river was. DH said, "Just look left as we leave the bridge," and there on the bank of the river was a two story house surrounded by water. Couldn't tell if the water was high enough to get into the house, but maybe. DH said, "I've seen it like that at least three times." He drives that way to work. We too live on a hill so never have to worry.