My daughter and I walked the dog on a rainy night. We splashed through puddles, breathed in the fresh-washed air, and arrived home soaked through our jackets. We have baked through July’s heat and it felt good to get drenched.
During the past three days, Cheyenne has received two of the nine inches of moisture recorded so far this year. It’s caused some flooding in low-lying areas, which includes creek beds, city parks, and a few basements. Thing is, these creek beds and parks are designed to catch runoff, and basements are not.
Water seeped into our basement last July during a fierce hailstorm. It soaked the rug in our daughter’s room, but there wasn’t enough water to float the usual teen debris on her floor. We had to wet-vac the water and dry it with a big fan, hoping there was no permanent damage.
Since then, I’ve built a backyard dam in the form of a rock garden to keep downpour runoff at bay.
These storms have brought no water to our basement. They’ve greened up the lawn and freshened the flowers. Given me hope that we’re not going to wither up and catch fire in August here on the high plains.
In last weekend’s post, I chronicled the tinder-dry landscape I saw on a day trip to Saratoga. This entire region received rain, "a good soaking" as my mom used to say. It will dry up again in this semi-arid place, one that receives about 16 inches of moisture annually. Two inches of rain in three days can bring us out of the doldrums. But it may also be the last series of substantial storms we get this summer.
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