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slowpoke_gardener

Nice rain.

The rain started hitting the OK-AR border yesterday. We have not got a lot of rain yet, but it is very nice, not a lot of run-off, so far most is soaking in.

Comments (18)

  • Okiedawn OK Zone 7
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Yay! I think more is headed your way from here.

    Ours was light for a while and then heavier for a while and then light again. It does seem like it is mostly soaking in. Our rain is ending here, but storms are forecast again for tonight.

    Dawn

  • johnnycoleman
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    YES! rain, rain, rain

  • Okiedawn OK Zone 7
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I've linked the latest version of the 7-Day Qualitative Precipitation Forecast. It looks pretty good for a wide area.

    At our house, we rarely get as much as it says we will, but one time this year, we got three times as much as it said we would, which keeps me believing in it somewhat.

    Tim hates the QPF because it gets our hopes up and then cruelly destroys them, but we already had great rainfall earlier today, and if we get more tonight, maybe he'll believe in it a little bit more. I showed it to him a minute ago and he actually looked at it and didn't make a sarcastic comment, so who knows?

    Scott, This QPF looks great for you too. Heck, it looks great for almost everyone. I just hope the rain delivers what the forecast tells us to expect.

    Dawn

    Here is a link that might be useful:

  • chickencoupe
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I was really surprised to see the second batch of storms roll around. I'm getting used to ineffective storms coming to end leaving an unusually dry spell. I kept watching the one over Love county in excitement and my heart expanding for all the areas including the Texas panhandle that are desperate for rain.

    I am SO glad we're not getting any more than light rains. Last week I question my lot's relation to the US Drought monitor. This week I'm certain it's a grade, maybe 2, below mesonet reality. But, then, it does qualify that in the disclaimer.

    It's because the land is like a basin or a bowl, if you like, and it captures a lot of moisture. We haven't dug in swales, yet. I struggle without a wind break but wonder if I need to wait on the affect of the swales to see how wet the property will be. That will be a while. I only wish they were already dug.

  • TotemWolf
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Just over 4 inches on my garden this weekend. 2 of those came last night. I had standing water all over the yard and the garden this morning. The wind pushed the corn down and I had to wait till this afternoon to stake it up. What a great problem to have.

    Robert

  • Okiedawn OK Zone 7
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    When I linked the QPF a few hours ago, it had Scott's area and mine in the 3-4" area, which at that point covered much of the state, and it looks completely different now. What the heck happened? Aaaarrgggh! Tim's gonna be saying "I told you so".

    Oh well, at least we got rain this time around.

    Robert, At the rate rain is falling there, you're gonna be gardening from a boat. What a change for you these last few weeks!

    I'm okay with no more rain falling at our house for the rest of the week. We have oodles and oodles of tomatoes almost at the breaker stage and too much water right now could not only cause them to exhibit weather checking, concentric cracking and the like, but also could water down their flavor.

    It is just such a relief to have significant rainfall finally. I was starting to wonder when it was going to fall here again. Another inch or two and we'll be up to 50% of average.

  • chickencoupe
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    That is awesome to read.

  • AlyoshaK
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Got very nice rainfall here. I'm approx 15 miles NE of Durant. My (cheap) rain gauge said 5/8 of an inch but I'm starting to get suspicious that it's on the short side. Maybe I just want it to lie to me.

  • Okiedawn OK Zone 7
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Charles, If you click on the link below (before midnight Sunday since I used the "Rainfall Since Midnight" map), it will show a color coded map that tells you what your area's radar-indicated rainfall is, and also the amount recorded at your county's Mesonet station, which I think was 0.89". My rainfall isn't very often the exact same as our mesonet-station's, but I compare the amount in my rain gauge to the color coded radar-indicated amount and it usually is in the same ball park.

    Dawn

    Here is a link that might be useful: Rainfall Since Midnight

  • scottokla
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Dawn, it has to be a mistake in the NWS. The GFS/NAM still shows rain tomorrow and again Thursday. Please be a mistake.

  • mksmth zone 7a Tulsa Oklahoma
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    It pretty much just stopped raining here in bixby about about 2 hours ago. It had rained all day. Not real hard just a nice steady rain.

    Mike

  • TotemWolf
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Add another half inch to my total. I am going to have to wait to get into the garden again today and I am not upset at all.
    I am going to need a break in the rain to get my lawn mowed though. It is also time to start working on the fall garden. I have to get my gourds and black beans planted soon.
    No matter what I will not complain about the rain after the last few years.

  • MiaOKC
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    We've been very fortunate in our part of OKC to have had pretty consistent, moderate amounts of rain. I think we got about a half inch late last week, mowed the lawn on Saturday morning, got an inch and a half Sat overnight, worked on the potted plants and pulling weeds in the veggie garden on Sunday (wearing sloggers, of course), and got about another half inch overnight Sunday - sounded like maybe a bit of small hail, too, but I was back to sleep so quickly I'm not sure. So I'm guessing 2.5 inches in the last week, but in increments where it didn't all run right off. I'll need to check and see if the big cracks in the ground have shrunk up, I'm betting they have.

  • Okiedawn OK Zone 7
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Scott, I don't know why the QPF suddenly changed like it did, but it made me nuts to see it drop us from 3-4" down to next to nothing. Sometimes it does that, and I always wonder why it changes so abruptly.

    For us, I think the QPF change was a mistake because we had a big thunderstorm complex roar through here in the early morning hours---enough that some parts of our county, including ours, had a Flood Advisory for an hour or two. We got about the same amount this morning as yesterday morning, so our rainfall total for the last two days is 3.5". Not bad, and much more today than the QPF predicted for us as recently as last night. I hope that y'all got some more rain too.

    We have rain in our forecast for almost every day this week through at least Friday morning, so I think we might get more, though not necessarily in big amounts like we've had the last two days. On most days it is only a 20% chance, but that's a lot better than the 0% chance we had for so many days this spring.

    Mike, That is the kind of rain I love because it gets to soak in so well.

    Robert, Tim's worrying about when the grass will be dry enough to mow as well. I'm guessing not for a couple of days, but I don't care. It is a small price to pay for having abundant rainfall.

    Mia, Oh, that is the way I like rain---when it gives you time in between storms and showers to get out and work while the ground is soft. I hope to do a lot of weeding this afternoon.

    I checked the cracks in our ground this morning. Some closed up completely, but some didn't, although they showed a lot of improvement. That's not bad. Later in the summer, it takes a lot more than 3.5" to close up the cracks.

    The best thing this morning was to walk outside to rain-cooled air and nice humidity.

    Now, we all have to prepare ourselves for the inevitable explosion in the mosquito population.

    Dawn

  • gmatx zone 6
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Dawn - If you use Malathion to kill mosquitoes, you better head to the stores and stock up. Here you can't find any if you are not standing there when the truck comes in with supplies. Also, even the spray on repellants are in short stock. I can't find any refills for my OFF Clip-on insect repellant. Every store I have checked with says their supplies go out as fast as they put them on the shelf. One told me that people are standing there taking them out of their hands as they open the boxes to put stock on the shelves.

    I've been lecturing our guineas about them falling down on their responsibility of catching the mosquitoes - they screeched at me and flew up into the tree by our bedroom window! Sure wish the Barn Swallows would invite their cousins, brothers and sisters to visit. The couple of pair we have are fighting a losing battle against the mosquitoes.

    Hasn't this rain been wonderful!

    Mary

  • Okiedawn OK Zone 7
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Mary, The rain has been incredibly wonderful. We're still only at about half of our average rainfall for Jan-June, but it beats being at only 30% of average. At least the garden gets some sort of reprieve from being incredibly dry.

    We don't spray synthetic pesticides in our yard or garden , so instead I rely upon Deep Woods Off sprayed on my clothing to try to keep the darn skeeters from eating me alive. I don't like using it and try to avoid putting it directly on my skin, but don't know how I'd survive without it. I don't think spraying would help much----we are surrounded by thousands and thousands of acres of open land and we are within the skeeters' flying distance of the Red River, so even spraying our few acres wouldn't accomplish much. More would just fly in from next door or across the road or whatever. I do put mosquito dunks and mosquito bits in all the areas of standing water we have...when there is any water standing.

    We have a lot of purple martins--maybe 14 or 16 or them occuping two different houses--and they do a fairly good job, and the barn swallows live under bridges here and visit our place every morning and every evening---I love watching them. When bugs are scarce, they even fly from one window screen to another one looking for bugs. We also have bats, and they are cool to watch, but one creeped me out last year by getting into our sunroom. I like having them close, but outdoors, not indoors.

    We used to have guineas but had a really bad predator year and lost about two dozen of them and haven't had any since.

    My husband works in Dallas, which is only about 80 miles south of us, so we do a lot of our shopping down there. I load up on mosquito repellent at CostCo or Sam's long, long before the first case of West Nile Virus makes the news, because after that story hits the news, it can be hard to find any mosquito repellent anywhere.

    Maybe you could order the refills for your OFF Clip-on insect repellent at Amazon or some other online retailer. Since we moved here, I've become very fond of online shopping. I love ordering something and having it arrive in just a couple of days. Even a trip to a big box store like Wal-Mart, Lowe's or Home Depot is going to be 40 miles or so round trip, so I've learned to always keep a list so we don't forget stuff and I buy in bulk. Tim laughs at me when he sees cans of OFF piling up on the shelf in spring, but by the time the stores are perpetually out of it in summer, I'm having the last laugh because we still have plenty.

    Last year I couldn't find the organic fire ant bait that I use at any store in southern OK or western north Texas..from Denton to Sherman to Dallas-Fort Worth. I've never really had trouble finding it before, but maybe more people are using organics. So, when I found it online, I ordered enough to last me three years, and it was easier and cheaper than running all over the place looking for it.

    Normally in summer we are in drought and the skeeters aren't that bad, especially after the end of June. That is one thing I do like about drought---very few mosquitoes. Right now, though, I bet they are planning a big invasion since we have moisture again.

    I've only killed maybe 6 mosquitoes all spring and only been bitten a couple of times, so obviously something else is helping the bats and the birds control the skeeters, and for that I'm grateful.

    Dawn

  • scottokla
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    We struck out again. Still, we got about 4 inches over the 3 weeks. No runoff and the pond is still really low, though.

    I think the NWS graphic was a day old or something and showed the wrong prediction until it was updated late in the day.

    We still have a chance today unless the system moves too fast. Right now we have about 80 miles left before the system center comes through and the moisture is gone. After that only the wrap-around rain and it will not be heavy.

  • AlyoshaK
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Thanks Dawn. I just now noticed your post addressing me and the useful link. You know, I seem to get lots of email notices of posts, but never yours, and perhaps also others. So if I've ever seemed to be unresponsive to a comment (this is to everyone) I'm sorry. I'm grateful for all the help people have given here. Is there a setting I'm missing that would enable me to know when anyone posts on a thread I'm interested in? Or maybe you somehow prevent notices of yours from going out? Or perhaps the system just treats you special. :)

    Charles

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