Rain rain go away!

[daryl moses]

I always wanted a pond [small lake] but I figured I would have to hire it done. Looks like Mother Nature is doing it on her own. This is my creek which is all Spring fed and usually just a couple of feet deep and 10-20' across.
We have had an extremely wet Winter here in East Tennessee, the ground is saturated and won't hold anymore, everything now is run-off.
The rain has subsided for now but the Weatherman is calling for thunderstorms tonight. Thank goodness our house is on top of the hill overlooking the Creek and the water has never risen this high.
The water will subside in a day or so when the rains stop so we aren't overly concerned. Worse case scenario the water crosses the road and we'll be cut off. The pantry is full so we will make out ok.
Looking forward to drier days though.

[Bruce Page]

It's going to be a green spring. We had 4" snow last night, our 4th or 5th snow since Christmas. Very unusual for us.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Tuesday evening through Wednesday midnight we had 6.6" of snow with 4.25" coming on Wednesday which was a new record for that date. Now it's in the mid-30's and a lot of it is melting off. Our patio roof is bare now.

[John K Jordan]

You have a creek? My wife will be jealous, even if it's flooding.

We live on the top of a ridge - the water would have to be several hundred feet deep to reach from the nearest creek. But even on the top of this ridge there are low spots - this is in the little donkey's paddock behind the barn:

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[Bill Bukovec]

In North East Tennessee the rain has caused mudslides, closing a few roads and lots of flooding . Could be worse, in Minnesota ( where we moved from) has had 30" of snow in February.

[Lee DeRaud]

This is my creek which is all Spring fed and usually just a couple of feet deep and 10-20' across.A stupid question of no particular relevance...

How big does something have to be to be called a "river"?
I would have thought anything you can put a canoe into is too big to be called a "creek".

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Lee, it depends on where you grew up and where you are. It's a regional thing.

[John K Jordan]

Lee, it depends on where you grew up and where you are. It's a regional thing.

In some places it's called a crick.

[Bryan Lisowski]

John, did the donkey ask Santa for a swimming pool?

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Guys, when you think you have a lot of snow to complain about this of this photo I took in 2011. Notice the guy has a crosscut saw sticking in the snow. He cuts a block of snow with the saw and then using the edge of his grain/coal shovel under the down hill edge breaks the block loose and leads it off the roof with the shovel.

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[Tom M King]

Our lake is supposed to be maintained at a pretty constant level. There is a dam, and lake about every hundred feet of elevation on the Roanoke River. Docks, and boathouses are built on pilings, since the water is supposed to not fluctuate. There are no floating docks that I know of. They're letting water flow down the river as fast as they can, but it's not keeping up.

This morning, peoples' docks are under water just a little, but with high winds predicted for this afternoon, and the resultant waves generated, there will probably be a lot of damage to docks, boathouses, and bulkheads.

[daryl moses]

A stupid question of no particular relevance...

How big does something have to be to be called a "river"?
I would have thought anything you can put a canoe into is too big to be called a "creek".
Around these here parts Springs run together to form Creeks, Creeks run together to form Rivers.
During "normal" times my Creek is 10-20' across and the deepest part would be pushing 2'. Go 10 feet up or down stream and it might just be a couple of inches deep. You would spend more time portaging a canoe than floating lol.
Of course right now you could certainly float a canoe or a pretty large boat.
BTW, woke up this morning and the Sun was shining, according to the weatherman it should remain dry for the next several days. My "Creek" is still out of banks but the water has receded quite a bit and should be back to normal by tomorrow.

[Tom M King]

Ours will be running high for days to come. It takes a long time for it to stop running from the many thousands of square miles in the watershed upstream from here. All the lakes here were built for both flood control, and power generation. From the stories I've heard old ones tell, there used to be some pretty severe floods before the dams were built. Our lake is about 35 miles long, and covers something over 20,000 acres. The next one upstream is larger, but is not maintained at a constant level, so they can catch it pretty bad around that one.

[Bill Dufour]

Guys, when you think you have a lot of snow to complain about this of this photo I took in 2011. Notice the guy has a crosscut saw sticking in the snow. He cuts a block of snow with the saw and then using the edge of his grain/coal shovel under the down hill edge breaks the block loose and leads it off the roof with the shovel.

404327

The ski area about 70 miles from us got 402" of snow this season so far. 221" in February alone. Their base depth is about 100" since it does not get warm enough to melt in the high country of California. Not that they get less snow then the higher altitude resorts at Tahoe.
Bill D.

[Dave Richards]

This morning after my first outing to clear snow. Already had about 3 feet on the ground. Another foot or so overnight.
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7876/47145436942_cfda2bfb68.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2eQ5FT5)
I've been out again since and will probably have to go out at least one more time. Wind is blowing 33 with gusts to 46. At least the temps will be dropping to below zero again.

If this doesn't quit soon, I'm gonna need a bigger snowblower.

[Jon Nuckles]

Lee, it depends on where you grew up and where you are. It's a regional thing.

I grew up in Davenport, Iowa, on the Mississippi River. Anything smaller than that was a creek to me. I remember trips to Colorado when I was young and being very surprised that some of the small waterways we crossed in Nebraska were called rivers.

[Bruce Wrenn]

Ours will be running high for days to come. It takes a long time for it to stop running from the many thousands of square miles in the watershed upstream from here. All the lakes here were built for both flood control, and power generation. From the stories I've heard old ones tell, there used to be some pretty severe floods before the dams were built. Our lake is about 35 miles long, and covers something over 20,000 acres. The next one upstream is larger, but is not maintained at a constant level, so they can catch it pretty bad around that one.The upper lake (Kerr Lake) is a flood control lake with hydro being it's secondary purpose. Gaston (your lake) is a "run of the river lake," meaning it should be at a constant level. Ever notice the picnic tables at Kerr are made from steel and concrete? This way, after water goes down, they will be in same place as before flooding. Once when lake was up, I watched a guy catch a 26 pound stripper that was lurking under a flooded picnic table. All winter over at Jordan dam they have been letting out water. It goes down sluiceway about 3 feet deep at around 40 MPH, to under cut a wall of water that is about 15 feet high. The water is 15' high as that is how full river below dam has to be to handle volume of water being released from the dam. Friday wife and I went to neighboring town. The creek lacked about a foot of coming over roadway In less than an hour road was under water. Google pictures of fish on I-40 after hurricane Florence.

[Tom M King]

I remember seeing the fish on 40, on TV. My Wife is from down that way. She has an Aunt who had water above the floor into their house, near the Black River, from Floyd. The house was rebuilt. Florence put water up into the rafters. They decided to move to higher ground.

I used to do a lot of sailboat racing on Kerr. There were more than a few times when we launched without leaving the parking lot.

[Perry Hilbert Jr]

I greatly dislike the muddy mess we have every spring for three weeks or so, but not having the horrible snow accumulations of some areas, and not having the very hot summers of some places are worth the trade off. In a few weeks the ground will thaw out and the moisture will drain normally and we won't have a 6 inch layer of soft gook everywhere. I can't drive the tractor off the driveway or it sinks in 6 to 8 inches and leaves terrible ruts. Last year was rainy, second greatest rain fall on record with no tropical storms to contribute. What is extremely off, is that things did not grow as well. Corn and soybeans rotted on the stalk before they could be harvested. Crop farmers had one of the worst years. Hay is scarce. Too wet too long to make hay last summer. I have been cutting hay and baling it up the same day. I can feed it immediately and save the hay in the barn. Just that now it is too wet to get into the field to cut. I have three weeks supply of hay and the grass grows enough that I do not have to feed come about mid April. So I just have to cut enough to get though a few additional weeks.

So now we have high winds, 50 to 60 miles per hour. On top of the very wet ground, trees are coming down all over the county, Closing roads, knocking out power, etc. I have to check fences for downed trees 3 or 4 times per day. Had to pull a few branches off the fence a couple hours ago.

[John K Jordan]

I can easily get stuck in my fields even with the little Kubota 4WD utility truck, not because of sinking deep in the ground but because of the gentle slope and topsoil like grease. However, in front of my horse shelter the horses are walking through 6" of mud since I can't get in there to fix it. I plan do do what a friend did at his place where the cows were almost getting stuck last year - when it got dry enough he scraped all the goop off down to the hard soil, then put down gravel over geotextile. He said he did a 100'x25' area by the barn and this year it's still like a paved road. He said it wasn't cheap but it worked so well he's planning on doing a bigger section this year.

He said he didn't get serious about fixing it until the day his wife got stuck walking across and had to be rescued.

JKJ



I greatly dislike the muddy mess we have every spring for three weeks or so, but not having the horrible snow accumulations of some areas, and not having the very hot summers of some places are worth the trade off. In a few weeks the ground will thaw out and the moisture will drain normally and we won't have a 6 inch layer of soft gook everywhere. I can't drive the tractor off the driveway or it sinks in 6 to 8 inches and leaves terrible ruts. Last year was rainy, second greatest rain fall on record with no tropical storms to contribute. What is extremely off, is that things did not grow as well. Corn and soybeans rotted on the stalk before they could be harvested. Crop farmers had one of the worst years. Hay is scarce. Too wet too long to make hay last summer. I have been cutting hay and baling it up the same day. I can feed it immediately and save the hay in the barn. Just that now it is too wet to get into the field to cut. I have three weeks supply of hay and the grass grows enough that I do not have to feed come about mid April. So I just have to cut enough to get though a few additional weeks.

So now we have high winds, 50 to 60 miles per hour. On top of the very wet ground, trees are coming down all over the county, Closing roads, knocking out power, etc. I have to check fences for downed trees 3 or 4 times per day. Had to pull a few branches off the fence a couple hours ago.

[Osvaldo Cristo]

From January to March is the rain season here in Sao Paulo state, Brazil. Lots of rain, strong winds and, above all, thunders. Lots of them.

Some flood and a few slides are common. Typical temperatures between 20°C and 33°C...

Actually it is raining now... with lots of thunders!

[Jim Andrew]

I am in North central Kansas, and we are soaked here. Have enough hay to make it to April 15, no longer. It is so wet, no water soaks in anymore, and the ponds are full, so any rain or snow causes the crick to come up. Hope we get dry enough weather to put up hay this year, last year we got half a crop of hay, because the winter was so dry. But last winter was pleasant for me, cows like dry winters.

[Rich Engelhardt]

Around here - if you can walk in it, it's a crick or creek, if it has spots where the water is up over your waist and flows sort of quick, it's a stream. If it's over your head & is too wide to skip a stone across & it's flows at all - it's a river.

If it can catch fire - - it's the Cuyahoga River..... :D :D

& right now - it's 6 degrees F outside - too cold for snow...
If I didn't have a dentist appointment at 9:00, I'd drive over to Punxsutawney Pa. & beat a certain rodent to death with a Louisville Slugger......stupid thing said early Spring!! Ha!

[Jason Roehl]

So a guy named Moses is complaining about a river? ;) :D

[Keith Outten]

It's been wet all Winter here in Eastern Virginia. Can't get my tractor out of the barn. A few weeks ago I needed to use my van and it wouldn't move more than 3 inches parked in the yard next to my barn. We are just barely above sea level so this much rain causes lots of problems, the good news is that I don't think I have seen more then ten snowflakes all Winter and the temperatures have been pretty mild. It's early for us this year but the grass/weeds are starting to grow, we normally start cutting grass about the third week of March every year. If I had to cut grass today my mower would sink in the mud and I have large puddles all over our yard, large enough to be a menace trying to walk from the house to my workshop. This has been a very strange Winter.

[daryl moses]

So a guy named Moses is complaining about a river? ;) :D
I see what you did there Jason.;)

[Lee DeRaud]

We're not getting the insane quantities of rain I see on the news for the eastern half of the country, but it does seem like SoCal is turning into Seattle: lately it's unusual to get two days in a row without measurable rain. As the saying goes, "we need the rain", but this just ain't normal. :(

[Bert Kemp]

Flagstaff AZ Had 33 " of snow a week or so ago and all that melts and flows threw my back yard plus we had lots of rain a moth or so back so the rivers been running for over a month and no end in sight. So I have river front property for a while.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wiNcM94G3s

[Lee DeRaud]

There's a big bright thing up in the sky this morning...my neighbor said "it's the sun", but I have no idea what he's talking about. :)

[Ken Fitzgerald]

The City of Lewiston, Idaho broke the local February snow record set in 1916. The announced new record total of 29.5" of snow in the local paper on the morning of February 28th. We did get more that night but I don't know if it came after midnight or before. Then the temperatures dropped. My wife was in Arizona and central California from February 19th until yesterday when she flew home. The total snow we had seen before she left was about 5" so over 2' of snow came in the last 9 days of the month. I know it seemed like every night I'd go to bed and the next morning I had to shovel a path to the mail box and my shop.

She measured 9" still on the ground yesterday afternoon after she got home.

[Rick Potter]

As Lee said, we are having a wet year here also. It is kinda nice to have something other than sand in the creeks and rivers for a bit.

[Jim Koepke]

We had hail yesterday. The bigger stones were close to a half inch.

My shop only has a plug in heater. It helps when the temps are down in the 20's & 30's. When it gets up into the mid 40's, my jacket will come of if much work is being done.

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The gloves tend to stay on. Them planes can get cold in an unheated shop.

jtk

[John K Jordan]

Yikes. Now I feel spoiled rotten. It hit 70 here today, sunny, same predicted for tomorrow. Spreading seed in the pastures this afternoon it was tee shirt time. Fed the bees today too - they were incredibly active after the rain and cold, bringing in loads of pollen since things are blooming. Now I feel bad headed down to my shop where the thermostat is set to 68 to knock off the night time chill. I think I've been in the South so long I've forgotten what it was like growing up in PA.

JKJ



We had hail yesterday. The bigger stones were close to a half inch.

My shop only has a plug in heater. It helps when the temps are down in the 20's & 30's. When it gets up into the mid 40's, my jacket will come of if much work is being done.

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The gloves tend to stay on. Them planes can get cold in an unheated shop.

jtk