FLOOD

We're 3/4 of the way through the month of May. In April, we had 3 or 4 good rains. In May ..... at this point, we have had probably a dozen good rains, some very heavy. The heaviest so far was yesterday. Large areas of rain moved through all day. Mesonet reports that the soil is saturated 32" deep statewide. Here is how our rain gauge looked when I went to check it this morning. (The center tube measures an inch, then there's an "overflow" into the larger container.)

Here's the first inch ....

.... here's the second inch ....

.... and here's .84. Total: 2.84". A farmer at church this morning said they had 3 inches. Some places around the state had more, way more.

To our northwest, VERY heavy rains moved through earlier yesterday. Of course, all that water is draining generally to the southeast through all the rivers and creeks. The Red River (southern border of the state), Washita (out west), Canadian (nearby north and east) .... all full/flooding.

Back on June 22 of 1948, Deer Creek (just south of town) flooded majorly, lives were even lost. That happened from a storm that had "dumped 20 inches of rain from 4:20 p.m. until midnight." (History book, p. 19)

Our rains haven't been quite that extreme, but dumping heavy rains, nonetheless.

This is how Deer Creek usually looks, fairly dry with "some" water in it. At times, such as during the recent drought, can be dried up. (Photo - August 14, 2009)

This is Deer Creek from earlier this month, after a rain, and I thought this was "full." (Photo - May 7, 2015)

At church today, folks were remarking that they had never seen Deer Creek so flooded. So Younger Son and I drove down there after church service, and I had him take pictures. This is Deer Creek today, looking west from the bridge. This only shows part of the width.

This is looking east, showing the full width of flooding, so far.

UPDATE:

More pictures from when Hubby and I went out to check on some things this afternoon.

Deer Creek, looking west.

Deer Creek, looking east. (You can tell the level is going down, by looking at the submerged "trees" on the left bank, and comparing them to the earlier picture that Younger Son took. Later, you could even actually see the mud/dirt under these trees when we came back through after going out and looking at the slab.)

Deer Creek, east of town.

Deer Creek by one of the Rt. 66 bridges.

At the "slab" east of town, which is a little small, flat, no-rail concrete "slab" bridge that goes over Deer Creek on a dirt road. Right now you can no longer see the slab, IF it's even still there!

Flooded fields by Deer Creek, east of the slab.