4 inches from Gustav

One attribute of this season's tropical storms is their ability to hang around. Fay was notorious, teasing Florida for days. Next came Gustav, at first taking aim right at New Orleans, then shifting west and taking out all kinds of sugar cane fields in Cajun country. After weakening and going inland over Louisiana, though Gustav refused to die. Our area was expecting the moisture from Gustav to meet up with an approaching cold front for rains in the middle of this week. Sure enough, on Tuesday afternoon the satellite photos showed that the far most outer bands of the tropical depression known as Gustav were over our area. We heard some thunder and saw billowing clouds like these. But Tuesday night and all day Wednesday passed with little rain, while most of Arkansas and southern Missouri got a soaking.

Today was our turn. The steady, hard rain started in the night and continued, with little break, all day today. Finally this evening it is just cool and humid, with clearing forecast for tomorrow. Water ran in rivers down the driveway, down the streets, over sidewalks. When we went to water exercise this morning, we were soaked to the skin by the time we arrived at the pool--despite jackets and umbrellas. At least the rain was accompanied by only a stiff breeze, not 100-mph howling winds. Hurricane Gustav was a threat to life, livelihood and property. The remnants of tropical depression Gustav were merely inconvenient. But when we checked the rain gauge in the back yard tonight, we discovered that Gustav had left us 4 inches of rain. Since we were already more than 14 inches over average for this year, I guess we now have as "extra" the entire annual average rainfall for Denver. If only we could send it to a place that needs it!