And it rained!

More than a foot of rain falls in area in past week, causing major flooding

A woman standing on the opposite bank motions and shouts for the driver of the pickup truck to “go around” rather than drive through the storm waters. Flood waters covered Grant Street in Decatur, blocking the entrance to the apartments at the end of the street. Many other roads and highways were closed for a time on Tuesday as record rainfall amounts created raging rivers which overflowed roadways.
A woman standing on the opposite bank motions and shouts for the driver of the pickup truck to “go around” rather than drive through the storm waters. Flood waters covered Grant Street in Decatur, blocking the entrance to the apartments at the end of the street. Many other roads and highways were closed for a time on Tuesday as record rainfall amounts created raging rivers which overflowed roadways.

— April of 2011 will go down in history as the wettest April in 85 years, according to records dating to 1926 kept by weather department observers.

By late afternoon Monday, total precipitation for the month measured 13.40 inches. And rain was still falling with more forecast for up until press time for the Eagle Observer on Tuesday and possibly beyond.

The previous record for April,according to the NOAA weather station in Gravette, was in 1941 when a total of 10.17 inches of rain fell. It was that year when Noel, Mo., was isolated just as it was Monday of this week. That was also the year the park in Sulphur Springs was flooded so deeply a family living in a house in the park had to be rescued by boat.

The average April rainfall at the Gravette station is 4.61 inches. Last year’s total was a miserly 2.99 inches. Up until last Wednesday night’s deluge, thearea was almost desert-like with just 0.74 inches recorded during April’s first 20 days.

The heavy rainfall this past week has pushed the total since the first of the year up to 19.99 inches. The normal precipitation for the first four months of the year is 12.99 inches. Precipitation for the first three months this year has been 6.79 inches: January - .25; February - 4.06; March - 2.48. Add to that this year’s April total.

The heavy rainfall, though accompanied by tornado watchesand sometimes damaging hail, will, in the end, be a boon for the area as farm ponds are full and moisture has reached deep into our topsoil, guaranteeing lush pastures, according to agricultural experts.

Beaver Lake, from which most of northwest Arkansas gets its water supply, had risen more than 10 feet by Monday evening and the Corps of Engineers opened the flood gates at the dam. This is the first time the gates have been opened since 2008.

News, Pages 1 on 04/27/2011