We had a heck of a storm here last night. Wind, hail, rain, twice.

Our neighborhood has limbs down all over. I wish, I would remember if I had emptied my rain gauge after Monday's rain...

Moni

Moni,

Wow! I knew it looked pretty bad on the radar last night but didn't know it had gotten violent.

So, scheduling the window guys is bringing you all kinds of rain?

I'll have to remember that the next time we're suffering through horrendous drought here.

I hope all your plants are OK.

I suppose y'all had better get ready for another round of rain (and possibly more) tonight.

Dawn

Well, according to a news story on The Oklahoman's website, Stillwater got hit hard last night---including snapped power poles.

Moni, I don't know which Mesonet station is closer to you but the ones for OKC show from 1.75" to 2.25" rain for the last two days, and one of the stations is down, so it isn't showing anything at the moment. (That might be the station closest to you and the weather could have knocked it offline.)

Dawn

I emptied my gauge Monday evening. We had a brief downpour in the early evening yesterday, but I didn't go out and check the gauge afterwards. This morning it showed an inch and a half, but since I didn't check it before bed last night I have no idea how much was from the early evening and how much fell overnight.

The early evening shower was very nice. When it first started falling it had a strong wind from the north. The rain wasn't quite sideways, but it was definitely being blown to the south. The wind died down very quickly though. The cloud cover didn't last long at all. After only a few minutes the sun was out, even though it was still raining pretty good.

I went out on the front porch and found this:

Debra,

What a lovely shot of the double rainbow. We had a double one here about a month or so back. I love rainbows.

Rain is good. More rain is better. I don't think any of us have had so much rain (well, maybe Paula has.....) that we don't want more.

I have been out picking melons and tomatoes that might split or crack if it rains heavily and I still need to pick black-eyed peas while they are at their prime.

My whole garden and landscape have perked up and look much improved since some more rain has been fallen. For July, this is pretty good weather as long as it doesn't turn too violent.

Dawn

I guess, I really should not have said limbs, cause it was/is mostly twigs. Not only that, on my walk this morning I realized, 90% of them are due to the Twig Girdler. I went home and printed out info on it, and put pages in peoples front door handles.

Hope they don't think I am picking on them. :)

My rain gauge shows: 4 2/3 inch

and the window guys rescheduled again, first for Tuesday, then for Wednesday, now for Thursday. The caulking they use just won't stick on wet surfaces, or dries correct when it's that wet. Who knows, they prolly show, when the temps are back way up high. :)

Moni

We've had 1.5 inches this week and the same last week here in NW Comanche County (Meers). It is just fine with me. There was such a threat from wild fires last summer due to the previous year's abundance of rain. I don't care how mush you water from the faucet (or the creek in my case) rain perks up the garden like nothing else!
Bella

Hi all,

I'm just west of Jones and I dumped 3.25" out of the gauge this morning @ 7:45. Yesterday, had an early evening storm (same one as Debra) and then another later with marble to larger size hail (covered the ground). Some large enough to make DH's eyes widen when they hit the roof. Then had another good rain this morning before work after I dumped the gauge.

Damage from hail limited to caladiums and red bud trees but haven't been to garden yet.

Enjoy all you can and wish you all a safe evening!
Laura

Hello to All!

Thankfully, I'm south of Laura, but we've still had almost 3 inches of rain since Monday. DH got out and mowed the front 2 acres before we had to bale it! No hail here. I think we got our share a few weeks back, although the outcome from the shredded squash plants was like they had a dose of Steroids!!

Going out to empty the gage, check for splitting fruit and stake up my young romas. Thanks, Dawn, for the reminder!

Paula

Moni,

Apparently the next time we are desperate for rain, I need to schedule the window guys. You sure did get a lot of rain.

Bella,
Ditto on the rain. I spent more time at fires from Sept. 08 thru April 09 than I did at home. So, the more rain the merrier, and no matter how much falls now, we will need more in fall and winter.

Laura,

That's a lot of rain too. I'm glad the hail was on the smallish size. I think hail always sounds larger when it is hitting the roof and windows that what it really is.

Paula,

It's hard to be mad about July rain, but I hate what it does to tomatoes and melons.

I think that once the weather kicks up and gets started, it still will take it forever to reach us. So, if we get any at all here, I bet it won't be until tomorrow morning.

On the bright side, the radar is already showing a line of storms at Jay's place in Kansas, so it should be moving down into the OK panhandle pretty soon.

Dawn

Jay - with the cooler temps & rain, not only will your garden be doing better, your electric bill will be lower too! Still not cool enuf here to sleep with the windows open, although I've been sorely tempted!

Already rumbling here in North Norman....rain isn't far behind. Radar shows it building. It might make it to you, Dawn, in the wee morning hours! I just realized you live in Marietta!!! I have such fond memories of that town from my youth. The first 6 years of my life were spent in Ardmore. My grandfather was a rough-neck in the early 60's and I lived with my grandparents the first 6 years of my life. Marietta was the "cookie town" to me! I got to take trips out to the rigs to take him supper, lunch - whatever. Got to wear the hard-hat as I climbed the stairs to the dog-house. Every trip was rewarded with time at the cookie factory to stock up! My heart has always remained in south-central Oklahoma. I take vacations there and any other opportunity that comes up! If I didn't have such a good paying job here, I'd be down there!!! Trying to find time to take the grandkids to the Arbuckle Wilderness before school starts!

Paula

Dawn they had flood watches out for this whole area. We got another 4 tenths which makes 3 1/2 inches I've emptied since it has started. Went out to my sisters for supper. The heavy rain started about two miles south of town. They got over another inch tonight. Makes over 7 inches I believe since it started Saturday for them. The fields down there are just lakes. They have mainly tight ground. Have a little sand on the north part of their property. Where my nephew lives is real sandy. My sand and his sand can take the moisture better than their tight ground. Ours has fell real nice. A good chance of more tonight they say. Looks like a big cell moving down out of CO if it keeps on it's present track. Hope everyone gets some nice rain but can avoid the bad stuff.
Paula yes it has been cool enough here I've been sleeping with the windows open. Nice to wake up in the night hearing the rain patter. I could tell the rain was coming after I got home around 6. So did chores then drove post by my caged plants to tie the cages too. Some of the plants are out of the tops and the plants are getting heavy. And after the 70 mph winds my sister got last night I decided I had better get them staked to a post. They recorded wind speeds in Guymon of 68 mph last night. Glad we missed that. I only lacked one when the lightning got close and the rain started. Overall the garden looks a lot better. Will start spraying again tomorrow night and try to stay ahead of the diseases. Supposed to be in the 70's tomorrow. Hoping for some great fruit set during this spell. Jay

Paula,

I am in the wilderness west of I-35 about midway between Thackerville and Marietta.

I loved the cookie store, but it isn't here any more. After we moved here in 1999, it was open a few years, but the cookie factory changed ownership several times and the most recent owner closed the cookie outlet store because of "liability issues" related to selling broken cookies. No, I am not making that up!

I am not expecting rain until morning. That can be good if the storms are violent because usually you guys further north get the storms earlier when they're all wound up, rampaging, hailing, snapping trees and power lines, etc. By the time the storms reach us,they are old and tired and worn out and just want to dump the rain and move on. We might be awakened by thunder and lightning, but we are usually spared the damage.

I hope everybody and their plants come through tonight's storms OK.

Dawn

Here's hoping we get some of that rain here in Tahlequah! It keeps going around us, except for a few teasing drops.

George

Just checked the Mesonet and every county in the state except one (that isn't reporting)is showing rain in the last 24 hours except mine.

Well I was going to tell you that I could hear the thunder, but just now the sky opened up and the rain is falling. The band of thunderstorms reached us at 7:16 AM. It doesn't look like we will have a significiant storm, just rain. WooHoo. Will report later. I didn't get much sleep last night and have been up since 5:30 so I am hoping for a nap this AM......well, I can't garden. It was barely daylight this morning and I was out looking for the "blushing" tomatoes and bringing them in.

George, the beans I got from you finally went in the ground on Saturday and they are up. This rain should really give them a growth spurt. I sure hope so since I was a little late with them. I at least hope they give me enough seed to put in a really big crop next year. I hope you are getting this rain this morning. It looks like it could start and stop and start again for us. There is kind of a hole in radar image in our part of the storm.

Last night I had 3 3/4 inches of rain, and I think it all fell at once. It just poured down in sheets. So for the week I've had 5 3/4 inches I think.

I was in the storm that Debra took a picture of the rainbow. I was outrunning the hail :) I have a brand new car, my garage is temporarily overtaken by heat and air equipment, and the hail core was pretty small, so I got in my car and started heading west! I caught just the edge of the storm before I got out of it, but no damage seems to have taken place :) I saw the rainbow too and wished I had my camera nearby. It was gorgeous.

I'm planning on re-edging all the beds this weekend. The ground should be nice and soft!

Lisa

Carol, we had some sprinkles earlier this morning and again a few minutes ago. But it appears that Tahlequah keeps getting in those "holes" on the radar! It's good and dark out there now. Maybe we can get some real rain. So far, I haven't had any measurable rain since two weeks ago, and that was about 88/100s of an inch. Apart from that, I don't believe we've had ANY rain for at least 8 weeks. Wow, I'm starting to sound like Dawn, last year!

George

As I write we're getting a good soaking rain with no wind, hale or lightning. I hope it last for a while!

Jay,

I missed your earlier post because I was writing mine.

I was trying to watch the radar last night to see if you got more rain, but the storm split a couple of times and I wasn't sure if the rain reached you.

I'm glad you got those plants staked so any wind that accompanied the storms couldn't blow them over.

Three and a half inches of rain is great and I suppose the seven inches is wonderful too although that much in a short period can cause problems, especially in tight soil.

I'm sure you'll get additional fruitset during this cool spell. How wonderful that will be. I am seeing a lot of new blooms the last couple of days, so think our plants will set more as well if the highs don't go too high. We just haven't cooled off nearly as much down here as many of you who are a lot further north. Today is the first day that it feels really good and cool outside. Any cooldown at this time of year is good though, even if it only means a high temp of 90 or 95 instead or 98 or 102.

Y'all, our rain arrived very late, around 3 a.m. and was a very loud thunder-and-lightning storm with a little rain thrown in. We had a little more than 3/4s of an inch, so added to this week's earlier rain, we have had 1.7" this week, which is a lot of rain for us in July. My garden is looking deliriously happy and quite green. No violent weather here. I was watching the storm make its way towards us when it was still in Texas and producing winds of 100 mph, but I knew it would run out of steam (in terms of windspeed and such) before it got here, and it did.

I'm glad a lot of you who have been needing rain up there in central OK have gotten a lot this week--your drought type numbers (rainfall, fractional water, KBDI) were starting to worry me. George's and Scott's drought numbers still do worry me.

Lisa, Just a little more rain and your gauge will start overflowing like it did last year! I'm glad you got your new car out of the hail zone in time.

Carol, So the rain was just a little late arriving? Better late than never.

George, I have been mystified by the way the rain keeps missing y'all there in Tahlequah. I have watched it closely since spring, and it does astonish me that y'all are having our usual 'dry holes' in the radar/rainfall. Never in my life would I have thought you'd ever have a rainfall shortage there (or that Scott's area would be abnormally dry either). I am hoping and praying that you and Jerreth get rainfall there so that your garden will produce well. I hope Scott gets some rain too. Y'all have been far too dry for far too long.

You have my sympathy, George, because I understand the frustration of being surrounded by rain that somehow continues to miss your particular location. You are starting to sound like me last year, but you can't help it....you're experiencing similar conditions and frustrations. Hopefully you'll get some rain today and, if not today, then soon. Down here, we always say it takes a flood to end a drought, so it wouldn't surprise me if you get some really heavy rainfall to end your drought there, and hopefully it will be sooner rather than later.

Y'all know that the Oklahoma weather is all messed up and out of sync when Marietta has had more rain than Tahlequah.

A lot of us still have rain in the forecast on one or more of the next few days. How odd is this rainy pattern for the end of July/beginning of August? Now, let us all hope for a cooler-than-usual August, because that would be almost too good to be true.

Dawn

Ahh!! We've had a couple hours of slow rain. True, I'd like this to last for 24 hours or more. But still, it's a definite improvement! I think it's about over now.

George

Instead of chanting that old children's nursery rhyme "Rain, rain, go away....", we all should be chanting "Rain, rain, come and stay....".

George, A couple of hours of slow rain means it should soak in nicely. That's cool. Maybe more will fall tonight or tomorrow.

It cleared off here and we had blue sky and sunshine for an hour or two, but it is clouding up again. I hope that's a good sign. The temperature was mild--in the mid 80s, but the humidity was and is awful!

Dawn

I checked the rain gauge when I got home. There was only 1/2" precipitation at my home, which is closer to Peggs than to Tahlequah proper. In Tahlequah they had at least 1 1/2".

Yes, I do hope we get more!