We had hail but only about marble size. I was grateful it didn't last very long.

Ilene,

What weather you've had this year! Is anyone in the neighborhood building an ark, by chance?

I'm glad it was only marble-sized hail.

We haven't had weather anything close to what you're having, and I still feel like I carried my containers in and out a zillion times this spring.

Why don't y'all just build a big retractable dome over your garden and get it over with? LOL

With all the rain, everything ought to grow! Well, if it isn't drowning, any way.

Dawn

You poor folks! It was like that last year for us. I almost wish we had it back now. So hot out I can barely stand to be outside except early mornings and later in evening now.

I need to call my sis and see how they're doing in Southeast Kansas. She'll be very disappointed if they lose anything else after last year's flood.

Susan

Yes, I was out this morning moving in the strawberry and petunia hanging baskets for the millionth time. Thunder was rumbling around and the storm radio kept bleating in the bedroom. Only just made it too before the downpour hit.

First I heard it, like a train in the distance.

Then I saw it, literally a curtain of water approaching.

Then it hit!

It was a fast moving storm for us and was over in about 45 minutes but it was enough.

I checked the plants and all were OK.

The weekend mowing has been officially cancelled :-)

Mick.

Susan,

Like you, I am already tired of "hot and dry" and we need some of that rain (and the nice rain-cooled air) here.

Mick,

Could you and Ilene please send some rain this way!

And, hey, it is a sad, sad thing that the mowing had to be cancelled. I am sure you are very disappointed. : )

Dawn

Mick, The Mesonet station says we got .06 inches of rainfall. I don't know if they have that gauge turned upside down or hidden under a carport, or it has a hole in the bottom, but they never even get close. Hard to believe there could be THAT much difference in those few miles. I think they need to do a quality control check. My DH and I mixed up some container soil in a unused fish pond yesterday and had emptied it out but I hadn't put it away. It has over four inches of rainwater in it. I could have filled a rainbarrel in probably two or three minutes the way it was coming off of my house near the chimmney area. They have got to be kidding. One recent rain they showed about a half inch and the TV weather showed 3 inches......but we know what statistics they post.

I think I can probably stop looking at that website.

Carol,

I find it amusing to compare our rainfall totals with the totals from our Mesonet station AND from our county's National Weather Service Official Cooperative Weather Observer. And, like yours, ours never agree. I can understand the difference between the Mesonet Station and us as it is several miles west/northwest of us. The NWS Cooperative Weather Observer, though, is only a mile away as the crow flies. His numbers match ours pretty closely sometimes, but other times they aren't even close! It just amazes me that we have such wide variation in rainfall in a fairly small area.

I'm watching the radar and thinking you may get more rain tonight, and I am jealous...although, if I were y'all, I guess I'd probably be sick of the rain. It was only 92 degrees here this afternoon, but the humidity pushed the heat index up to 100....and we went to a beautiful outdoor wedding. Luckily, the wedding started at 6:30 p.m. and a little breeze came up and kept it pretty pleasant. So, I guess it is a good thing it didn't rain here today.....for the sake of the young couple's wedding.

Dawn

I am glad you had a good day for the wedding. Two of my nieces had outdoor weddings down there and they were beautiful. One was in a lovely back yard by the pool, and the other was in the country and the bride arrived down a curved road in a horse drawn carriage. The wedding was followed by a backyard party with the patio set up for dancing. It was a great party. Of course, you are always taking a chance when you plan an outdoor wedding, but in southern Oklahoma in the summertime, it is pretty safe. LOL

Carol

.06 inches of rainfall?
Hmmm methinks they miscalculated there a wee bit I'm sure. We were hit by a wall of rain, quite spooky to watch to be honest, it being so fast moving.

Dawn

There's an eighteen wheeler on its way with a delivery as I type :-)

But, every cloud has a silver lining. Jan and I had a great German dinner at the Rheingarten in Grove this evening as a treat for enduring the "Full retail experience" at WallyMart (we both hate shopping).

Mick.

Carol,

This was a most special wedding. It was the "little girl next door" and she has grown up to be a beautiful, sweet, kind, "not-a-mean-bone-in-her-body" simply breathtakingly beautiful young woman. (Can you tell we are fond of her?) Her beloved is a fine young man with a bright future and they are just so much in love.

The wedding was at the WinStar Casino Golf Course, with the ceremony held on the putting green and dinner and dancing inside the Club House. It was so beautiful! Everything was just perfect. It was the first time I had been to the Golf Course and it was so much nicer than I had imagined it would be. Unfortunately, the Golf Course is VERY close to the Red River east of Thackerville and the wild pigs tear up the Golf Course something awful, despite all kinds of efforts to erradicate them. I understand they shoot some of the wild pigs pretty much every single night, but there seems to be a never-ending supply of more and more of them.

So, it was great and lovely and wonderful beyond description, and since she's "a southern girl", the dinner was chicken fried steak and all the fixings. It doesn't get much better than that!

I do think late May is about as late as you can do an outdoor wedding here without everyone roasting, though.
And, as you noted, it is very unlikely to be rained out!

Mick,

Thanks for sending down a truckload of rain. We appreciate your thoughtfulness.

I hate shopping too.....it takes me away from things I'd rather be doing! At least you had a nice dinner out.

Dawn

Boy if only we COULD put a dome over our area, wouldn't that be great? This is Sunday morning and it's all gray and rumbling out again. Everything is saturated. There's rain forecast for the next five days in varying percentages. My new iris bed is sitting there nearly dug, but now so wet, I can't get out there and finish it. I don't know how much longer I can hold the Cherry Red Dianthus seedlings in the milk jug before they have to be individually potted up, and I was SO hoping I could skip that step and put them right in the ground as the border for the iris bed. But I can't do that till I get it all dug, 'cause I'm wanting to till in some amendments while there's nothing planted there and I didn't want to make DH drag out the tiller for only half the bed. I see now that I should have, at least I could plant in the rain. Yesterday I took some Miracle-Gro and scattered it in standing water puddles. I don't want to add any more water to the ground, and everything looks so bedraggled right now. One of my pepper containers plugged up it's drainage hole so I lost that one. Oklahoma gardening: three steps forward, two back.

Susan, do call your sister as I hear they're getting this too. I'm sure those folks up in Coffeyville and Independence must be worried they're going to get a repeat of last year.

Dawn, the wedding sounds wonderful! I'm glad it turned out so well. Don't you just love it when two really fantastic young people meet and fall in love! Think of the great kids they'll have! I remember a poster that used to be on the wall at a place where I worked for a short time. It was titled "50 Ways to Have a Happy Life". Number one on the list was "Marry well."

Mick, my son does lawn mowing as a second job and he is having a time keeping all his customers happy! Yesterday he mowed all day, dragged in around suppertime and said he hadn't even stopped to eat. I had runzas in the oven and he ate three and took a couple home!

Carol, I do think it is amazing how different the amounts of rainfall are in certain areas. One time we had a neighborhood garage sale and we all prayed the rain would hold off. There was rain on the other side of town but we got nary a drop! And I remember when I was a child, we'd travel from the little town of Copan (in OK near the KS border) to Iola and Chanute KS where my grandparents lived, about every two weeks. It wasn't uncommon for us to drive through a sheet of rain. You could see it ahead of you on the road just like Mick described, and then before you knew it, you'd be through it and we'd look back and watch it. There for awhile, it seemed like every time we went to KS we got hailed on somewhere, or chased home by a storm!

Well, it's starting to pour again and there's thunder and lightning so I'd better post this before the electricity goes off!

Ilene,

I cannot even believe y'all are getting more rain. La Nina is being very cruel to your part of the state.

We have just about "average" rainfall totals for the year so far, but it has been very patchy. We'll have very little rain for 3 or 4 weeks, and then get a month's worth of rain in one day.

No rain to speak of in our forecast for the next few days, but the temperatures are going to hold right at the threshold for tomato fruit set, roughly low 90s for highs and low 70s for low temps. Without rain, though, the plants won't grow as quickly or as large, and I try not to irrigate until they wilt (no point in watering a lot and creating lush foliage the moisture levels can't support unless I'm prepared to water 2 or 3 times a week).

Last night the Bride's father told me they're having more snakes on their place lately, but so far we haven't seen more than usual. There has been some clearing of property on a ranch west/northwest of us and that might be stirring up the wildlife though.

I wish we could send you a big load of sunshine to dry up the ground and help everything grow.

Dawn

Yes, here it comes again.

I was up at 4-30am this morning watching the downpour accompanied by a spectacular light show. Rain wasn't as heavy as yesterday but it was enough. Now as I type this at 9-00am the storm radio has gone off again and the thunder is starting up.

Hey, us Brits just LOVE to complain about the weather, you know. It's a national pastime. :-)

Mick.

In that case Mick, I can see why you moved to Oklahoma because you will never be without a topic of conversation.