Rain in Western Kansas!

Winds were terrible in Western Kansas yesterday. According to weather reports, I heard that our winds were clocked at 50 mph with even stronger gusts. This was definitely NOT a wear-my-moo-moo-to-the-mailbox-day! LOL!!! Tumbleweeds, hats, papers, wigs, etc., etc., etc were just a-blowin- in the wind. Leighlyn is one of the junior high cheerleaders. A pep rally was being held in the gym so my mom, Grandma, Abigayle and I went to watch. For everyone except for me, walking--not flying- was a chore. I managed to hold my own very well. The wind would have had to have been much stronger to have lifted me off of my feet! Ha! Ha! Anyway, we got to watch the rally and then returned to our van.

Originally, we had been planning a birthday dinner last night for my sister, Lori, and our daughter-in-law, Mel. Unfortunately, because of the wind, we chose to reschedule dinner. We were concerned that the wind might blow someone off of the porch. So after we drove around for awhile looking at storm damage that the winds had created, we took Grandma and my mom home. At 6:00, Stan, Abi and I picked up my mom and we went to the football game. The cheerleaders were going to be performing a half-time show. Climbing the few steps to the top of the grandstand was a bit spooky. Coming down them later on was even worse. Fortunately, we all managed to keep tight grips on the handrails and we arrived on Mother Earth safely.

We felt so sorry for the football players. Going up against these winds was tough. I am sure that the players were exhausted afterwards. At one point, the teams were on the center line. Satanta was to kick the ball. Their man kicked it alright. It went straight up. From there, the southerly winds picked it up and carried it all the way through the goal line. The ball never once touched the ground. It was amazing but, at the same time, very frustrating for the Wichita County Braves. In the end, Leoti lost by a score of 46-0.

Just before dark, the thunderstorms began moving in and dropping precious moisture on us. It rained off and on all night long. For awhile around 10:00 p.m., Wichita County was under a tornado warning. Scary, but to my knowledge, no tornados ever hit the ground. This morning, the rainguage at the Blaus house registered a fine 1.60"! Throughout the day, I visited with a good number of people around the county. Some didn't receive as much as 1 drop. Others in the county ended up with over 2". In some cases, water was freely flowing across the roads.

Today, we had little, if any, wind. Just a beautiful fall day. This evening, more thunderstorms moved into the county. Currently, at 9:50, we are under a tornado watch until 2:00 a.m. We are getting more rain and a bunch of thunder. I know of no one who is against any of this much-needed moisture. That is good because we have an excellent chance of more rain through the rest of the weekend.

I spoke with a local man this morning who told me that he had recently been in the Satanta area. He said that the fields just look like sand. The drought has basically destroyed all plants that were not being irrigated except for some trees whose long roots still manage to find water somewhere. I sincerely hope that they are catching some good rains now also. This drought has been terrible for the past several years. Maybe this heavy rain will flush out the last of the drought. Lets pray that it does.

Well, tomorrow morning, I will be checking my rainguage again. You can count on me to let you know what it reads.

VLE-B