posted on August 1, 2000 07:03:31 AM
Halfway through hurricane (hah) season and finally we have 2 days in a row with rain! The drought here in FL is 2 years old now and boy, is it getting old. Last month we had .2" (that's right, 2/10" of precipitation. Before the drought it rained torrents every day at 3PM. I can only imagine the horror that was the DustBowl of the '30s. We drove to Mobile over the weekend and passed fields and fields of corn just left to die. The cotton's looking questionable too. It feels weird not putting in a garden when in past years all you had to do to get more than you could ever can or freeze was to throw some seed on the ground and keep the chickens away until they sprouted. Now the soil (mostly sand anyway, where it's not red clay) is dust. You have to dig down nearly a foot to find any moisture at all. It does cut down on the mowing, however.
Yesterday, AT LAST, the skies finally showed some nice thunderheads, so we actually had to cut our beachtime short. It's been pitch black out every since and we are all just delighted.
I know none of this makes any sense to those of you in the Northeast, who have been hip-deep in mud since spring. If you could see your way to tipping up your part of the planet so all that water rolls down here to the Heart of Dixie, we'd appreciate it.
posted on August 1, 2000 07:34:35 AM
HCQ -- my folks are in central Florida where wells have been drying up -- so I can understand the drought-dread that you must have by this time. Rain is good.
(Did you read about the fella who was driving through the woods near Gainesville's airport dropping lighted matches -- while there were already wildfires burning nearby? I know they didn't catch him immediately -- but never heard if they did later. Sheesh.)
posted on August 1, 2000 12:02:16 PM
HCQ I know what you're saying. Hawaii's been in a drought for several years too. And today we finally had the tropical storm warning lifted, as Daniel veered north away from Maui. For 2 days it was right on top of us, a big bad tropical storm downgraded from a hurricane only the day before. They even closed down the schools yesterday... and what did we get? 2 nights of rain, yawwwwwwwn. I ran out and threw grass seed all over my lawn, waiting for the big storm, lol. Guess it's back to the sprinklers...
edited to add xifene, my Dad lives in Gainesville.
posted on August 1, 2000 05:03:51 PM
HCQ same way here in NE Florida. Past few nights, thunder and lightening but no rain. But, here in Jacksonville the sun can be shining on side of town and storming on the other.
posted on August 1, 2000 05:29:45 PM
Here in Gainesville, the Monsoon (sp?) season seems to be in full-swing. Usually, around 4pm everday (give or take an hour), we get a nice, though short, thunderstorm.
We had water restrictions, and the constant threat of wildfires earlier in the summer, so this is a nice change.
posted on August 2, 2000 04:23:23 AM
Hi HCQ,
Sounds just like here in many parts of Australia. We can be dying of thirst for sometimes years and then when it does rain we're swimming for our life!
Once, some years ago, I was in a place called Marble Bar, temperature was over 100 day in and day out, when it started to rain.
There were kids terrified of it. They were over three years old and had never seen rain!
Even here down in Australia's south-east corner we are desparate for good rain. We get little bits but have not had anywhere near as much as we need. This is still our winter, what the heck will we be like by the end of summer?
Bob, Downunder but never down.
I know exactly what you mean. A drought was predicted for the Midwest this year after a couple of dry years. At first it seemed like it was going to come true. Everybody got finished with planting in record time. The wind blew and the dust blew. We all sat around talking about the dust bowl and how bad it was now with no till (means not plowing) and semi till in place today which saves the top soil. We could not imagine how horrible it must have been in the dustbowl days when everything was plowed.
How much rain did you all end up getting. Did it help some?
Kcat, I told you that you would scare that storm away!!!!!! Seriously, I hope you get some rain soon. I'd rather have too much than not enough, anyday.
of precipitation. Before the drought it rained torrents every day at 3PM. I can only imagine the horror that was the DustBowl of the '30s. We drove to Mobile over the weekend and passed fields and fields of corn just left to die. The cotton's looking questionable too. It feels weird not putting in a garden when in past years all you had to do to get more than you could ever can or freeze was to throw some seed on the ground and keep the chickens away until they sprouted. Now the soil (mostly sand anyway, where it's not red clay) is dust. You have to dig down nearly a foot to find any moisture at all. It does cut down on the mowing, however.
