Mustang, Oklahoma, United States
60-ish 'child of the prairie' who loves sewing, baking, knitting and most of all -- family & friends.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

After the storm . . . . .

I know, I know - - - we Oklahomans seem to spend a lot of time talking about the weather.
It's true - we (including myself) devote many conversations to the the state of our weather.
But, you would too if your weather was as 'changeable/active/in-your-face' as it is here on the southern plains. The weather is a big deal here.

For example - - -
Last year was one of the driest years the state has ever recorded. It seemed we were under a constant 'Burn Ban' for the entire year and even that didn't prevent grass fires that burned out of control for weeks on end. Crops dried up and died in the fields. Lakes and rivers were at record lows. It was a hard year.

Now, this year is the 3rd wettest year for our state. Rivers and springs are swollen and over-flowing. Winter wheat is rotting in the fields because the ground is too wet for the combines to harvest this year's crop. And, I'm not going to even mention how big and aggressive the mosquitoes are this year.

We seen rain and more rain in the past few weeks. Yesterday, the weather provided more fodder for conversation for we Okies.
A large line of thunderstorms popped up in Kansas and then for the next 12 hours, they slowly marched across our state. Some areas north of OKC, received 4+ inches of rain, baseball size hail and winds in excess of 70 mph.

By the time the storms reached central, it was 11 pm and they had calmed down a bit -- just a lot of lightening, thunder and 2.5 inches of rain. At our house, the power was out twice and my older cat, Muffin, was not a happy camper (neither was I come to think of it). With all that 'sound and fury' and no electric for the A/C, there wasn't much sleeping going on at our house last night.

As you can see by the picture -- when I arrived at work, the storms were working their way southeast. The sun was shining and by noon the local weather-wizards are predicting 90 degrees with a heat index close to 100 degrees.

I should be used to the weather and the lack of sleep it occasionally creates - after all, I am a child of the plains.
But, today the only thing keeping this 'child' awake is a large Diet Vanilla Coke
Thank you God for
Sonic Drive-Ins and for cold caffeine !!