GRAVETTE — Do the more than three inches of rain that soaked Eagle Observer country recently indicate this summer’s drought is over? Ask any old timer who has lived through at least a half dozen Arkansas summers and he will probably shake his head and say, “May-be, maybe not.”
Pastures are greening and, with cooler temps, ponds are starting to fill. Even tomatoes, which struggled through the summer, have resumed blooming and are setting small greenish fruit.
Hot and dry summers are not strangers to area residents. According to available records, dating back to 1926, almost every summer is visited with several weeks of blistering heat and scant rainfall. This year was the same, only different.
The hot days arrived earlier this June and, though someprecipitation fell early in that month, by the time the firecracker month arrived, a deficit of more than seven inches had accumulated.
A sizzling July, coupled with less than a half-inch of rain during the month, saw the deficit jump to more than 10 inches.
The month of August this year sizzled but it was not a record breaker for hot temperatures, and the few showers that occurred did not equal the normal rainfall for the month. September arrived and the deficit continued to exceed more than 10 inches.
Comparing Years
Last summer, 2011, was also hot and dry, as local residents can recall. But there were some interesting differences between last year and this year.
In June this year, the mercury topped the century mark on six different days. This compares with only one 100-degree day during June of 2011. During July, both this and last year, the area baked during 24 days of temps at or above the 100-degree mark. However, August of this yearwas somewhat cooler than 2011 since there were only seven century-mark days this year compared with 13 in 2011.
It was on August 3 last year the 114-degree temperature reading at the NOAA station in Gravette tied the all-time high at the Gravette weather station. That occurred on July 19, 1936. The hottest day this year was 111 degrees, recorded July 30.
One big difference between last and this year is the amount of rain during July. During last year, a total of 1.58 inches of rain fell, which helped lessen the drought factor. By comparison, the scant .30 inch this July, coupled with the blistering heat, compounded the problem for struggling vegetation.
Pastures burned, ponds dried up, lawns and gardens cooked, and trees, particularly on rocky hillsides, browned or shed their leaves.
Finally It Rained
Rainfall on the last day of August this year, augmented with intermittent September showers and a generous 3.27 inch rain that fell a week or so ago, has resulted in greening of grass and pastures, has helped ponds recover; and the overcast, cooler days have allowed a general regeneration of vegetation.
During 2011 a total of 55.08 inches of precipitation was recorded during the 12-month period. Total precipitation up to Sept. 24 this year amounts to a stingy 24.58 inches.
The almost 10-inch deficit remains. It will require 20 inches of rainfall between now and December 31 to match the average annual 44.87 inches the area receives during a 12-month period.
Surprisingly, the driest year on record, locally, was not during dust bowl days of the 1930s, but ratherit was 1963 when local weather observer Glenn Justice’s records show the area received only 21.66 inches of moisture during the entire 12-month period. His reports indicate occasional showers were received during the summer months, which apparently lessened the drought conditions.
The next driest year was 1936, when precipitation totaled 23.94 inches. Drought conditions during many of those depression years was extreme, and observer Julius Schmidt listed several comments about the hot, dry conditions during that period.
There have been other dry summers, including 1964 and 1970, as well as several years during the 1940s and 1950s which damaged crops and which resulted in comments about drought conditions by local NOAA observers.
According to records kept by the various local observers since 1926, at least some precipitation has been recorded every month during those 86 years - that’s 1,032 months - with one exception. That was August,
2000, when ZERO precipitation was recorded at the
NOAA station in Gravette.
Above average rain fell during other months throughout that year, and 2000 ended with a surplus.
Perhaps that proves there is some head-shaking weather every year in Westside Eagle Observer country.
News, Pages 1 on 09/26/2012