As usual, we have receive a lot more precipitation, here in Tahlequah. I'm so glad I had the chores done before the gully washer hit! It was 70 F. when I first went out and has probably dropped 20 degrees.

George

George,

You always get more rain than we do! Always.

I think that, officially, our Mesonet station recorded .22 but we had 3/10s at our house. At this rate, we may reach 24" official inches at the Mesonet station and about 26" at our house by the end of the year.

The wind was the killer here....it blew like mad, gusting into the low 40s at some times, but mostly blowing in the mid-20s and gusting into the middle and upper 30s. Our fire danger was quite high this afternoon, with strong wind and very low humidity around 17%. The wind was setting off alarm systems, blowing open doors that were supposedly locked, blowing signs into the middle of I-35, etc. The drying effects of the wind probably offset the small amount of moisture that fell.

This morning's rain blew through so fast, that by the time I finished writing about it, it was over!

Dawn

Our place got just at one inch today, but down in Crawford Co Arkansas I bet they got a lot more. It certainly seemed like a couple inches fell during the 3 hours we were down there. Our rains slacked off in Oct. Only 2" that month after 9" in Sept and 8" in Aug. Then only 1/2" in Nov and now about 2" in Dec. Still brings us over 60" for the year--one of the wettest years I can remember and most of it falling in the spring and summer. Still hoping you get more Dawn.

It rained about 3/4 inch here in Edmond during the night. I was gone all day yesterday, and today. Oh well, I was gone on Friday too, riding my bike, from Pauls Valley back to Choctaw, where our van was. :)

We left Grove on the 21st and it was 11 degrees. Although it was warmer as we drove south it was not really warm even in Houston and Galveston. We were well into the Gulf of Mexico before we really had warm weather. We went to Progresso, Mexico and took a two hour bus ride to the Mayan ruins. We were getting hot as we walked around then we got a nice little rain shower which sent us running for the trees so we had a little protection. The rain felt good and we really didn't mind getting wet. The rain stopped and we bartered with the locals and bought a few things. Then we returned to the ship and sailed all night and by morning we were in Cozumel. That was Christmus day which we spent on the beach with a temp about 85 degrees. On Saturday we returned to Galveston and started driving north. We went thru very heavy rainfall but it didn't last very long, but we watched the temp drop 20 degrees in a very short time. It was sure a nice break to sit in the warm sunshine for a few days.

Dorothy,

On a different thread, I posted the latest U. S. Drought Monitor map, which shows some data that might surprise some people.

Although Love, Bryan, Marshall and Carter counties have been in the "dry" areas of this map since early summer, the rest of the state is rapidly catching up and much of it is now in the mildest drought category of "Abnormally Dry" while some of the drier areas have just recently moved from "Moderate Drought" to "Severe Drought". In looking at that map, it is hard to remember that many parts of OK had fantastic rainfall through about Sept. or Oct., and it reminds us how just quickly that a couple of "bad months" can change things drastically here.

Moni, I bet it was quite an ordeal riding in some of those heavy winds this weekend.

Carol, It sounds like y'all had a lovely trip. I bet the sunshine and warmth were wonderful. So, the port at Galveston is open again? I wasn't sure if it had reopened following Ike, or if the cruise ships were still departing from the other port at Houston.

Dawn

Dawn, not an ordeal, a joy! The wind was at our back. :)

Moni

Moni,

Lucky you! Since the wind was at your back, I bet it was most helpful!

Here, the wind was awful....blowing open supposedly locked doors at businesses in town, sending the police to check the buildings, etc. It also set off alarm systems and some people lost phone service for a while. The wind even blew road signs into the middle of I-35.

I couldn't even fill up the bird feeders--the wind emptied them as soon as I filled them.

Dawn

Yes, the Galveston port is open, but still showing lots of the results of Ike. Trash is everywhere, and lots of the buildings that are still standing have pieces of metal ripped off. Many homes still have tarps tied down on their roofs to cover the damage. We didn't see all of Galveston because we just went straight to the port, but we still saw a lot of damage.

In Mexico, we were told that the cruise business is also much less than normal because of the economy. It was a great trip although I did get sea sick because we had lots of waves the first night out. Coming back the water was calm and the temps were pleasant.

I totally enjoyed seeing all of the tropical plants.

The prolonged cold weather here finally took out my salad greens. Of course it wasn't covered or anything but I doubt that it would have mattered much anyway. We had greens past mid-December, so now I know what to expect and plan for in the future.

Our son and DIL just left today to go to her parents and then he will be leaving next week for Nigeria. She is going to stay with her parents for awhile.

I have lots of new flower seeds to try because of the swaps and offers I have been involved in. I am going to try winter sowing several of them. Sure hope I can make it work.

Now I feel like I need to rest from my vacation. LOL Maybe I'll take a nap.