While people in Louisiana have had way too much rain, we’ve barely had any over the last month. The weather folks have forecast rain for the last 2 weeks but this summer’s wet weather has been choosy about where it falls.
Thursday afternoon it fell a flood while I was at work. We had an outside gig to play that evening so I thought well that figures when it finally rains its on the day I don’t want to get wet. I need not have worried. Not a drop fell in Andrews where we played and not a drop fell in Brasstown either. I reckon all the rain decided to stay in between the two.
A week ago Steve told me the same story. He was working in Bellview, which is a community or two away from Brasstown. Steve said it rained so hard the ditches filled with water and ran over into the road. As he finished up and headed for home he quickly drove out of the spot of heavy rain to dry roads and dusty ditches.
One day this week a girl I work with swore it was raining on one end of her car but not the other.
Yesterday we finally got enough rain to at least wet the ground, but we need more. Makes me wish I could wave a wand and take the excess water from Louisiana and spread it around where it’s too dry giving them some much needed relief in the process.
Tipper
Tipper,
Here is what I’ve decided about our lack of rain here not far from I-40, that runs East to West!
The rain clouds drop down off the plateau and travel along I-40 until they get near Roane County. Then they split and the clouds with the rain go North and the dry clouds go South. We figure that the clouds dry or wet just do not like to travel on the terrible, tractor truck laden I-40 traffic between the plateau and Knoxville. In fact the weather person made a statement about how it splits after dropping off the plateau as it moves into our area! However, he didn’t mention “bad traffic” on I-40 as the reason that the clouds split and take all the side roads. HA
Thanks Tipper,
Actually we have had a fair amount of rain, counties farther Northeast between us and Georgia and Tennessee lines have had less rain, I think still considered drought conditions, been raining off and on since lunch here today..
Maybe we’ve had a drier summer in the 30-odd years I’ve lived in this part of MA, but if we have I don’t remember it. Last summer was tough; I was scrambling to get enough hay to get my herd through the winter at any price. And this year looks like it’s fixing to be worse. Not complaining, just wondering how to best plan for the winter ahead.
Its raining here right now! That’s the first time today!
Only 2 rains here all month, only 2 last month. Nothing is getting along very well
After about 10 days with little to no rain, we got 2″ between Friday morning and Saturday morning, and it was a blessing. Praise the Lord!!!
We often see rain headed this way, get to the west boundary of our county and dry up, cross the county, and then reform on the east boundary of our county. Weird.
But then through the years, even during childhood, we often had weird rain – in the road, but not in the yard; in the front yard, but not in the back yard. One time our Grandma called to see what was going on. She noticed the quiet in the house and asked where us kids were. Mom said we were outside playing. Grandma said, “What! It’s raining!” Mom said, “It is in the back yard, but not in the front yard.” We still laugh about that, and we still see that type of thing happening where we’ve lived. Bro Tom calls it the Redmond Effect. LOL
Hope everyone’s having a great weekend, and a safe one too.
God bless.
RB
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I wrote a comment to your Dog Days and Weather Signs that got stuck in the pipe but the subject is appropriate to today’s post too. My mother spoke of dry Dog Days and wet Dog Days.
During dry Dog Days it was so hot and dry that crops failed to prosper due to thirst and sunburn.
During wet Dog Days we got too much rain. The crops were pale and spindly from lack of sunshine. The weeds took over because we couldn’t get out in the fields. If the wet weather pattern held into tobacco cutting time it could be disastrous. Tobacco was our cash crop. It needed to be dry when it was cut and for a couple of days afterward otherwise it would rot. The way we speared it onto the sticks allowed the leaves to shed a little rainfall but if the ground under it was wet you could be in trouble.
There was no way to predict which way the Dog Days would turn. We could have wet Dog Days while the farmers in the next holler over are in a drought. Statistically the weather was normal for the area but not so for individual farms.
We are in wet Dog Days here. It has rained as least a little bit, at least once a day, every day since the early part of July. I don’t have a garden this year but the grass in my yard is so high it is falling over. The rainfall totals for the period may not be above normal but its also the time of day when it rains that’s important. It is bright and sunny in the morning and you plan to get out when the dew and/or the shower from last night dries up. Just as you are going out the door, you hear rumbles of thunder and see streaks of lightning. You go back in and hope the sun will come back out and dry it up enough to get something down before dark. Either it stays cloudy or rains again!
Parts of four neighboring counties to the south and southeast of us are in a D1 (moderate) drought. Only Cherokee and Clay and a little bit of Macon County are in D2 (extreme) drought. The entire western slope of the Appalachians in NC are in some kind of drought (dry Dog Days). The eastern slope has had at least ample rainfall so far. There has been some flash flooding here.
I asked a question a friend a while back. “Why, when they call for partly cloudy, do I always get the sunny part? Does that mean it is always cloudy for somebody else?” He had no answer but he did share with me his way of predicting the weather. He has a weather rock! He puts it outside and watches it. If it gets wet then it is going to rain. If it stays dry then it is not going to rain, at least not yet. He says it works with snow and ice too.
Rain here in Middle TN nearly every day. Our garden is a jungle and we are having to mow like it’s early summer. I like to hang out my clothes but have’nt been able to do many. I’m usually a rainy day lover–love to read & snack on popcorn, etc. on those days but even I am tired of this. If this much falls this winter we will have snow to the housetops.
Guess I’m like PinnacleCreek–often unhappy with the weather and grumpy about it. Maybe we will have a beautiful sunny mild fall. We are all ready for it here.
Tipper,
We got a good rain yesterday for over an hour and it has drizzled alot today. That is the best kind. The weather forecast predicts more for the weekend, but when “ole hottie” comes out next week, you can’t tell we even got any. I’ll sure be glad when the Snows start fallin’…Ken
I can believe it rained on one end of her car and not the other. I’ve sat on the side of a small river with rain falling in the middle of it and muddy water running in the other side and not a drop on my side.
For Pinnacle Creek; The farmers I knew as a kid slept with a window open and rolled over before daylight to sniff the air.
They could not only tell if rain was coming but tell within 30 minutes of when it would start.
When we first got a TV they would argue with the Knoxville weatherman. Of course he was several miles and many hollows away which makes a big difference. It rains on one hill/ridge and not the next.
I never mowed the grass in either June or July. I watched the rain on the radar split time after time and go around us. Folks two air miles away reported hard rain while I had cloud and wind only. I have lived here 24 years and have had drought before but not one like this summer.
You remind me of what Mark Twain said about Connecticutt weather. He roofed his bedroom with tin because he liked to hear the rain on it. But he said the weather was so contrary it rained on all the rest of the house and skipped the bedroom.
I am hoping my fall garden will do well to sort of make up for the summer. Meantime, whoever gets rain I’m glad for them.
Country Folks Pray for Rain
What clouds and thunder gather;
Skies are threat’ning and gray.
But the rain falls elsewhere:
None comes here today.
“Possible showers,” the ‘weatherman’ says.
“Summer storms are passing through.”
But still my lawn is parched and dry
And flowers are withered, too.
I remember how we met to pray
For rain when crops were failing.
Some faithful believers took umbrellas to church,
And expected hard rains, even hailing.
We were rewarded for our prayers:
Such a rain as we’d never seen!
Crops soaked the moisture quickly,
Soon fields were verdant and green.
And when the harvest time came,
Food yields, enough for all.
A reminder that when we ask Him
God hears and answers our call.
We haven’t had that much rain here either. It clouds up, and threatens with thunder and then just passes us by. A magic water wand would be nice!
I so enjoyed meeting you Monday! I hope Deer Hunter didn’t think I was too crazy, but when I recognized him from your photos, I just had to say something! You are just as sweet and kind as I thought you would be.
Pam
scrap-n-sewgranny.blogspot.com
Did you ever spread your wet laundry around inside because of unexpected rains? When I was very young, my sister and I thought it was great fun to play among the shirts, sheets and towels (and other things) spread over the chairs and tables or hung from improvised lines nailed into door frames in the living room. All too often we got in trouble for messing up the laundry. I remember Mama being so thrilled to get a second set of sheets for each bed so, if the rains came at an inopportune time, we could still have sheets to sleep on!
Tip, I thought about you and your garden yesterday as that rain came down. It wasn’t much but it was a good start!
The low rain and record heat this summer has been trying.
It will keep you on your toes if you hang clothes on a line–rains just enough to wet them and then stops. Even with checking the weather daily, I cannot seem to get Mother Nature to cooperate with my schedule. If I want rain, I can almost assure I will get it after I wash the car or get out with my new fresh hairdo. Then the heat so hot it makes one grumpy. Oftentimes I wonder how the farmers and housewives made it back in the day with no daily weather forecast.
After last winter I swore I wouldn’t complain, but guess it is just human nature. Never boring in four season worlds. It almost makes me long for the days when the crockpot is loaded with homemade soup, and the snow is blowing outside.