Good gravy, that doesn't look good. We're flooding here and due for a week straight of rain. I told hubby last night that I need hip waders to garden here.

I lived in Hawaii for a couple of years. Each island has a "dry" side and a "wet" side. The wet side caught most of the rain that blew through, leaving those of us on the dry side, well, much drier. I don't remember it ever getting Oklahoma-like, though. LOL

Diane

Diane,

I was thinking you had moved to the "Corn Belt". Now I'm wondering if you moved to the "Rain Belt"?

How far are you from your warm-season planting dates? Is all that rain/wet ground/mud/ponding of water going to interfere with your planting?

It is cool, misty-drizzly, and foggy here today and I love it! All my cool-season plants that have struggled mightily in the daytime highs we had in the upper 80s thru mid-90s are now breathing a sigh of relief and soaking up the cool moisture. I haven't looked at our RH online, but it must be 100%.

I know that each island in Hawaii has a dry side, but I never thought of them having drought although apparently they do. I cannot imagine it would get Oklahoma-like. I know they do have wildfires sometimes though, but I'd bet it is much more rare there than here.

We have a "chance" of rain in our forecast every day for a week, but for us it is mostly a low chance---about 20% on most days, but I think 50% on one of them.

Last night, I tried to go to bed early. I did see storms on the radar near the Possum Kingdom Lake fire area but thought they would go more towards Wichita Falls than toward here. A little after 10 p.m. Tim sent me a text message from work warning a 'nasty storm' was in Montague County, TX (how often have their storms first hit our house and then headed straight for you in LeFlore County?). I told him I wasn't worried about it and was going back to sleep. I did see lightning to the west-southwest but Montague County storms often go from there across the river to the Love County communities in western Love County and don't come close to us...then they go on to Lone Grove, Wilson, Ardmore, etc. Sure enough, the NWS started putting out Severe Tstorm warnings for Orr, and Courtney in Love County, Lone Grove and Ardmore in Carter County, and for Garvin County but NOT for us. Then, the Ft Worth office of the NWS issued a Special Weather Statement for strong storms just south of us in Texas. I still felt like it would miss us, but when I looked on the radar, I saw one long storm, not too separate ones. So, with a storm forecast for either side of us, I realized it would hit here too since there wasn't a "hole" in the line of storms that would pass over us.

It hit us like a hurricane. Hard, hard wind, tons of thunder and lightning, brief heavy rainfall (only 1/2" because it blew through here at about 60 mph), and tons of thunder and lightning. The rain was blowing sideways at times. I had to laugh. Thank goodness the warnings were all for places north and south of us or I might have been worried about severe weather and expecting a big old loud storm with lots of wind or something to happen here. Of course, after it already had hit us they issued a weather update warning us of heavy rainfall, possible hail, wind up to 70 mph and lots of lightning. Thanks, weather guys, by then we already knew it was here!

Our weather probably perplexes the forecasters at times as much as it does us.

Dawn

"Our weather probably perplexes the forecasters at times as much as it does us. "

Ain't that the truth. It bugs me immensely when people joke about "gee it must be nice to get paid for being wrong all the time". I mean, a) they always think they're the first person who thought of that, and b) the job is way harder than it seems.

That being said, it's curious that they didn't issue the warning until after your storm, Dawn. Sounds kinda like an "oops we missed that one" to me, but I wasn't there to know what they were thinking, lol. At least it didn't cause too much damage.

I'll start planting warm season crops the first couple of weeks in May, depending upon the forecast at that time, of course. I'll probably hold off on the more sensitive things, like peppers, until the end of May. Not yet having a feel for the weather patterns here, I'm trying to play it very definitely on the safe side for this year.

Since we've put in the raised bed and trenching, I can get to those beds, as long as I don the muck boots. And it's keeping the stuff planted in them out of drowning danger. We only have the front bunch of raised beds in, though. The back half hasn't been done yet so I'm hoping for a nice little dry spell... um, soon. The tomatoes and peppers are going back there so we'd better be able to get it done. I cannot imagine a year without tomatoes and peppers! I'll plant them here and there all over the front lawn if I have to.

I'm glad you didn't get blown to Oz in last night's storm. It's gotta be hard to predict the weather right where the stuff seems to blow up. I know people EVERYWHERE say, "If you don't like the weather, wait five minutes and it'll change", accompanied by a knowing chuckle. That's one of my pet peeves -- hearing people say that like they have unpredictable & changing weather. Puh-leez. I've lived in several, several states and Oklahoma takes the cake, hands down. Next time I hear someone here in Missouri say that line, I'm gonna pop 'em right on the nose. Hrmph. Same for the ol' "Oh, yeah, I have really bad clay." Yeah, right, buddy. You don't even know really bad clay. And then there's the complaining about hot summers, bugs, and other assorted "we have it bad" dramas. This (MO) is a complete paradise! Do NOT get me started...

Ahem. I might have had a little unplanned rant there. LOL

Diane

Heather,

I had followed that storm on the radar for a few hours as it traveled northward from the San Angelo, TX, area up through Palo Pinto/Young County and headed towards Wichita Falls. I was relieved that areas with big wildfires were getting some rain, and kind of relieved too that it seemed the storm would miss us because I know any Tstorm this time of year often brings hail.

When I got the first text from DH, I did get up and look at the radar and the storm looked far S-SW of us and I wasn't at all concerned. Within minutes, something changed. Even when the threat seemed to be for both Gainesville south of us and Ardmore north of us, I wondered how it could miss us unless it had assumed a weird doughnut shape and we were stuck in the doughnut "hole". Yet, there we were with a Special Weather Statement (I think, it was a SWS because I was half asleep!) for Cooke County, TX, and a T-Storm warning west/northwest of us. They seemed to think it would miss us, or maybe they were just ignoring us! : )

Obviously, the storm didn't miss us at all and it kind of made me giggle (in a "laughing with you, not at you" sort of way) when we received the weather statement after the storm hit.

I know that there are a million variables and odd things happen, and just count last night's "sudden" storm as one of them. We all joke about the forecasters being wrong, but I think we fail to give them full credit for all the times they're right.

The only time I've ever really been frustrated with a poor forecast was in the spring of...um...probably 2008. It was in late April, I believe, or early May. We had a forecast low of 50. We went down to 32 degrees and tomato plants that were 2 to 3' tall froze completely to the ground. If a forecaster had been standing beside me in the frozen garden that day, I would have wanted to kick him or her in the shins! Now, if they'd remotely hinted at the chance of a freeze or frost, I would have tried to cover up the plants with floating row covers and frost blankets, which might or might not have saved the plants. However, with an overnight low of 50, no one expects frost or freeze damage. I just chalked it up to being one of those bizarre weather oddities you cannot explain. I figured it never, ever would happen again.

The very next spring, the exact same thing happened to George in Tahlequah and he lost all his tomato plants. That had to have been in mid-April because he'd sent tomato seeds to some people on the forum, and they had grown tomatoes from them and were able to give him replacement tomato plants at the Spring Fling of the exact variety he'd lost, which was a family heirloom.

So, it is now a twice-in-a-lifetime weather oddity. I know the NWS normally doesn't miss a forecast low by 18 degrees, so something bizarre must have happpened on those two nights at opposite ends of the state. Still, it is those odd "misses" that people remember, and not the other 350 or 360 days of the year when the forecasters get the forecast right. I guess that's human nature.

This is why weather is fascinating. Just when "they" think they have it all figured out, it 'acts out' and surprises everyone. Never, ever a dull weather moment around here.

Dawn