Rain Bounce.

OK, friends and fans of weather. We had something of a big day around here last night. First things first:


And I wasn't going to report that amount. I was not. I wandered out bright and almost early this morning to check the ANYLF rain gauge, and when it said that, I thought, Bullshit. Sorry to all you kids tuning in out there. I mean, it rained off and on all evening, and it rained hard from about 10:30 on through until I went to bed sometime just before 2:00, but that amount? Bullshit. And I was sad. It rained so long and so well that I wanted to know how much we'd gotten, and I was sad that rain bounce off the morning glory leaves, which are nearby, or some other odd excuse, had ruined the crackerjack reporting that goes on here at ANYLF Global 27408 Rainfall Headquarters.

Now. I will say this: After the first beautiful evening rain—it came on right before sunset and rained half an hour or forty-five minutes and afterwards half-cleared off and set a rainbow down over the top of the Harris Teeter and also turned the light all through the neighborhood this pink-yellow such that the houses changed color, which is to say that our white vinyl siding looked pink and then yellow, literally, and the light all around felt physical, almost, felt like you could have perhaps removed a portion of it and set in a box for later—after that rain, I was plenty happy, but the dog wasn't right, and I checked the radar around ten o'clock, and this series of storms was lined up basically along the interstate back towards Winston, and I did think, That looks kind of like a once-in-a-season kind of thing, and if all those storms hold together, which surely they won't, we sure could get some rain out of this, thus making up for my sad sulking Friday and Saturday when we were twice surrounded by rain and twice saw it slide by and/or evaporate. But then they held together. More than. And new ones formed right along the lines of the old ones. Here's a time lapse from give or take 10:30 to 1:30 (for those of you scoring at home, these are moving essentially west to east):








Even for all that — and I cracked the window before I went to bed because it was still pouring, and I was loving the sound of all of that, and when I fell asleep it was still raining, and I even woke up once and it was still raining — even for all of that I still thought, holding the rain gauge pre-coffee, Bullshit. And I checked in with the good folks at NOAA, who were reporting an inch and a half at the airport, and I thought, See?

However:




Click on either of those images — both radar estimated rainfall amounts for the previous 24 hours — and you'll see a little fingernail sliver of three inches or so right to the just-west of Greensboro, right around our neck of 27408. And: The toilet I left out for the city gentlemen to remove had, give or take, three inches of rain in its open tank this morning. And: I don't know when the last time was I saw it rain that hard for that long. And: I specifically moved the gauge a few weeks back to get it out from under the Japanese magnolia, to make sure we weren't getting rainfall readings and drip readings together. And: Even though the gauge is yes in the morning glories and near the tomatoes, I really don't think there is such a thing as "rain bounce" off morning glory leaves. Those things are too frail to do anything other than just flop over.

So we're actually and yes going to call it 3.2" for the series of storms yesterday. I got my frantic lawn mowing dash. In fact, I got in a foul mood because I thought whatever it was that started raining on me while I was finishing, badly, the last few stripes, had blown on by or blown apart. Here's the thing: it had. It's just that there were six or seven more good storms back behind it.

This happened in May, too — a huge storm on the last day of the month to take us up and out of our monthly deficit. It's not great to get it all at once like that — be better to have half an inch every few days — but I'll take it where it's given. That was some rain, friends and fans. That was damn sure some rain.