The Rainy Season

After several years of drought, we had enough rain this spring for things to really start looking up. As lakes and reservoirs began to refill, watering restrictions were lifted and we all breathed a collective sigh of relief. By May things looked so good the Governor proclaimed the drought was over.

Ending a drought is apparently not up to the Governor. The rain stopped. June, July, August and into September we barely had enough rain to keep the grass alive. This picture was taken in July.

Since the middle of September we've had several big and small rain events. We had more than five inches of rain in our gauge, twice. Instead of being several inches below normal precipitation for the year, we're now more than four inches above with as much as two more inches of rain forecast for this weekend.

Rain fell steadily over several days the first time. Everything was so dry I saw very little ponding anywhere. When another big rain came just a few days later, the water didn't have anywhere to go. My entire back yard filled up. These are pictures of the area shown above during the second big rain.

 

We needed the rain. All the lakes and reservoirs are now at full pool for the first time in several years. The water table is up enough for basements to flood again. The ground is thoroughly soaked, and with cooler temperatures and fairly frequent showers has stayed that way for weeks.

It's been a great time to move plants around in the garden. Elephant ears given up for dead long ago have sprung up. A castor bean plant returned from seed. That tells me the ground has not been this damp for at least five years when I last had castor beans in the garden.

I'm not going to call a press conference to announce it. But I think it's safe to say the drought is over. And I'm thinking maybe God is a Democrat with a sense of humor...

The Crotchety Old Man