Thank God for the rain

It has just started raining.

The editor here, The Ozarks Boy, says he is not going to complain that he just carried bucket after bucket this morning to water hiswife's flowers on the back deck. Nope, he is going to thank God for the rain.

We really need it. Missouri is in a drought, like a good part of the country, and it is affecting our farmers and ranchers. I was at a meeting in town where a young farming couple who had just bought an established real estate firm said the hay production on their farm has been significantly affected. They are getting less than a thrid of the number of bales per acre that they usually get. That means they'll have to buy some hay from someone else, paying a higher price, no doubt, in order to have hay to feed the herd this winter.

It has been awfully dang hot, as well as dry, this summer. The temperature was above 100 a couple of days this past week.(Go see our local paper's website, Phelps County Focus). Now temperatures in 90 and above 100 are not rare, not unheard of, here, but that doesn't mean we like it when it gets that hot.

The Ozarks Boy's brother-in-law works in the Texas oilfields, and a week or two ago, he sent a photo of a digital thermometer--it might have been from inside his air-conditioned pick-up truck--that showed it was 113 degrees that day. No one here at The Ozarks Almanac remembers any temperatures that high here.

Forecasts for the next few days--The Almanac staff checks several apps and websites frequently--indicate that it will continue to be hot, although not as hot as it was Thursday and Friday. There could be some more rain, off and on, even on the Fourth of July. That's good, for it's been so hot and dry that The Almanac staff has been fretting about the possibility of increased brush fires during the Fourth celebration. Maybe the rain will diminish that chance. Thank God.

Well, the rain has stopped, so a check of The Almanac's weather station shows a good rain and some moderation of the themperature. The rain gauge out on the deck railing shows we got a little over 1 inch of rain. The thermometer held by suction cups to the outside of the window next to The Almanac office shows the temperature is in the 70s, not the 90s. Yes, The Ozarks Almanac weather station is a bit primitive.

Well, the writing of this report was halted by about 30 minutes. There was a citywide power outage but it's fixed, the electricity is on. The air-conditioner is running, and this Almanac report will be posted shortly.