Hi Dawn! I watched the news reports tonite and thought of you also. We had LOUD rumbling thunder all evening here, but now it's much quieter. We got a short spell of rain with thankfully none of the hail that they warned about. However, DH has grudgingly admitted that the rain was enough to make the sod removal of the new garden space more difficult. He's got 1/3 of the 35' by 65' space cleared! And me...well, I'm going right in behind figuring up just how much I can plant in there...and how much mulch it's going to take to keep it clear. Stay safe but I think the worst is over. Paula

Bon, I believe we've been either 27 or 28 days with no rainfall greater than 0.25" on any given day. Our rainfall for the month of April was slightly less than one inch. In a normal April we'll get 3 or 4" of rain. Usually this sort of dryness doesn't hit us here until June, or maybe even July in a really wet year. It isn't just the lack of rainfall that is discouraging. Our temperatures are running much higher than usual, and it is fairly windy every day. So, with it being hotter and windier than usual, and with little rain falling, everything is drying out very quickly. It is so dry here now that it is hard to believe our ground was totally saturated in March. At this point, March seems like a long, long time ago. One good heavy rainfall would help a lot, but we have virtually zero chance of having any rain in the next seven days according to our local TV met who is usually right about such things. After last year, I was hoping for a nice, wet spring, and it seemed like we were having one here until April arrived. Dawn

Bumping this down to get it out of the way. I think that by now, we all know tornadoes and severe thunderstorms are popping up in much of the state. Follow current watches and warnings on more recent threads.

Lisa, When I was reading the "White Water" thread, I was wondering if your gorgeous peonies were floating downstream, petal by petal, so I am glad to see you cut them before the rain arrived. Your flowers are so gorgeous, as always! I love seeing your photos. The boys won't care about the flowers being pink--they're graduating! We might be the state gardening forum with the most weather threads---but is it any wonder? Surely we are the state with the most volatile weather? It is hard to be a gardener in every region---we know every region has various weather and climate challenges. Honestly, though, does anyone else live in a state that has baseball-sized hail and tornadoes in their forecast 5 out of 7 days all spring long? If you listen to the daily weather forecasts in Oklahoma during severe weather season, you'd be tempted to give up on the ideal of even trying to garden here. Luckily, a lot of us are hard-headed and go ahead and try to garden any way. You can't let a few little things like huge hail; high winds; tornadoes; severe thunderstorms; destroyed plants, buildings, trees and power lines; recurring flooding (day after day after day); washed-out bridges and roads; etc. stop you from having a beautiful yard and garden. LOL Of course, we all know what follows rain in our gardens.....mosquitoes and other pests, fungal and bacterial diseases, and mounds of fire ants popping up all over. And, sadly, once summer arrives, the weather will be a lot more boring.....sunshine and heat, sunshine and heat, sunshine and heat for days and weeks and months on end. That's why my favorite months in Oklahoma usually are April and October because they are fairly mild (and warm--not hot and not cold). Of course, the rain started in earnest here on April 29th, but we won't hold that against April. Finally, it isn't just the gardeners who are being driven crazy by the weather. Down here in southern OK, the poor marina owners and other business people located on the shores of Lake Texoma must be pulling out their hair. After the epic flood damage that occurred in 2007 when the lake reached 640' and water began flowing over the top of the Denison Dam, they have spent so much money to rebuild and remodel businesses destroyed in 2007. The new Highpoint Marina Cafe is a case in point, and the name "cafe" might be misleading because it is a large restaurant. Anyway, they just opened in a brand new building built to withstand flooding (to a certain extent) a couple of months ago. This week, though, they began moving out all their furnishings and equipment, hoping to save it from the impending flood. One of the managers said "yes", they did build it to withstand flooding, but they didn't expect to be flooded the first year.....they figured the eventual flooding was way out there down the road some year. Instead, here it is. And, of course, while they are closed down, they're not making any money. And it isn't just the business owners. The parks and campgrounds are flooding and damaged and we taxpayers pay to repair those, year after year after year. Well, all those Texans who spend their summers at Texoma (on our side of the lake too!) help pay for the campground repairs with their entrance fees and tax money too. At least at both our area lakes (Lake Murray in Carter County and Lake Texoma), the Texans outnumber the Okies 10 to 1, but that's all right--we'll take their tourism dollars ! Dawn