You're....wet.
It was a dark and stormy night....actually it was Friday afternoon when the first storm rolled in. It was about 3pm or so & I was responding to message sent to me about Pam's GimpMobile. We are selling her current ride via EBay and I'll be flying to Minneapolis on or about the 4th of October to pick up her "new" replacement, an '05 Dodge Grand Caravan SE w/all of the bells & whistles. More on that later...or not.
Anyhow, the 1st storm rolled in w/more lightning strikes and instant thunder response than I have ever experienced...all around and, seemingly, on the house. Then the 2nd storm hit.... & the 3rd. For 15 hours, storm after storm after storm rolled through from west to east with perhaps 2 or 3 minutes of peace between them. Each one accompanied by more lightning strikes and truly deafening thunder than either Pam or I had ever experienced (I know i said that already). She grew up in the Mariannas & Hawaii, I've experienced monsoons and typhoons but these were a once in a lifetime series of storms, I hope. It was pretty unsettling. We'd hear them coming from the west, cross hard over our property and head out east. Turns out we'd received over 19 inches of rain in a 20-some hour period on our unofficial back deck rain guage. I don't know, but I think that's a shitload of rain. We have (too many) cats and because if them we buy 40# buckets of poop litter. I keep an empty one on the back deck because I've been so impressed with the high volume/short time rainfall. The top opening is 11.25" x 9" and the base is 7.75" x 10" and it's 14.5" tall. So, okay, it's not a prime rain guage because of the slight taper but actually it's pretty close. I know that the 1" depth at the bottom is not really 1" of rain, but I'll let you work it out. This thing was overflowing at 11:30 am on Saturday, I ran out and dumped it and by 4:00 pm Saturday afternoon there was another 5.5 inches. I'd say that there was real 18" of rain. I don't know how long it had been overflowing before I dumped it but who cares? 18" of rain is (only some pun intended) a boatload. The Spring River which is just north of us has a real live underground spring that is its source. It's cleverly called "Mammoth Spring" and it is at the MO/AR border about 25 miles north if here. At the River Bend RV Park, just north of us in Hardy, AR, the river level was slightly over 3 feet at 3pm on Friday afternoon. It's a great trout fishing and tubing creek. Mammoth Spring gushes 9,000,000+ gallons of water at its source. At 3am Saturday morning, the river level was 26 feet.
The original estimate of rainfall was 18 inches (at 1pm Saturday afternoon) but that was cut back to a mere 14 inches due to hail estimates...boy, did that make me feel better. I'll put up some photos of campers that had been buried in the woods by the river surge. A couple of houses were eaten by tornados just south of Ash Flat (2 miles from us) and other numerous tornados were confirmed just east of us. I put Pam and the doggie into the one internal room we have on this house.
Wet
The Geez
Anyhow, the 1st storm rolled in w/more lightning strikes and instant thunder response than I have ever experienced...all around and, seemingly, on the house. Then the 2nd storm hit.... & the 3rd. For 15 hours, storm after storm after storm rolled through from west to east with perhaps 2 or 3 minutes of peace between them. Each one accompanied by more lightning strikes and truly deafening thunder than either Pam or I had ever experienced (I know i said that already). She grew up in the Mariannas & Hawaii, I've experienced monsoons and typhoons but these were a once in a lifetime series of storms, I hope. It was pretty unsettling. We'd hear them coming from the west, cross hard over our property and head out east. Turns out we'd received over 19 inches of rain in a 20-some hour period on our unofficial back deck rain guage. I don't know, but I think that's a shitload of rain. We have (too many) cats and because if them we buy 40# buckets of poop litter. I keep an empty one on the back deck because I've been so impressed with the high volume/short time rainfall. The top opening is 11.25" x 9" and the base is 7.75" x 10" and it's 14.5" tall. So, okay, it's not a prime rain guage because of the slight taper but actually it's pretty close. I know that the 1" depth at the bottom is not really 1" of rain, but I'll let you work it out. This thing was overflowing at 11:30 am on Saturday, I ran out and dumped it and by 4:00 pm Saturday afternoon there was another 5.5 inches. I'd say that there was real 18" of rain. I don't know how long it had been overflowing before I dumped it but who cares? 18" of rain is (only some pun intended) a boatload. The Spring River which is just north of us has a real live underground spring that is its source. It's cleverly called "Mammoth Spring" and it is at the MO/AR border about 25 miles north if here. At the River Bend RV Park, just north of us in Hardy, AR, the river level was slightly over 3 feet at 3pm on Friday afternoon. It's a great trout fishing and tubing creek. Mammoth Spring gushes 9,000,000+ gallons of water at its source. At 3am Saturday morning, the river level was 26 feet.
The original estimate of rainfall was 18 inches (at 1pm Saturday afternoon) but that was cut back to a mere 14 inches due to hail estimates...boy, did that make me feel better. I'll put up some photos of campers that had been buried in the woods by the river surge. A couple of houses were eaten by tornados just south of Ash Flat (2 miles from us) and other numerous tornados were confirmed just east of us. I put Pam and the doggie into the one internal room we have on this house.
Wet
The Geez
posted by Oldood at 12:15
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