I have received 0.4 total inches of rain, no more than 0.1 at a time since July 26. Some places within 12 miles in two directions have received over five inches. Bad luck?

Sounds like a good year to dig a pond. We are way over average rainfall. I wish you luck getting the rainfall that you want.

Man John, thats awful. I have thought about you as I was watching the radar for the past month. Really thought a few times that you would be getting some really good rain. Hate that you are in such a spot. Hopefully the fall rains will hurry your way!! How is your BOW doing?

Down 25 inches as of this morning. I am hoping for two inches of rain in about 10 minutes time.

I'm hoping for you also! I'm down further than that...but this was the first year ours has gotten to full pool. Dropped alot over about of month of no rain back in July/Aug. We are still down a few feet...but MUCH better than before. I lose 1/2" a day though during dry hot weather...so its expected when you go through a bad dry spell. Wish I would've found PB before we started the pond!

John is this a pattern for your particular area long term? Or is it just this particular year. I never got to see your place but from what I understand we rode pretty close to it when riding down the Pig Trail. The mountains were all pretty green and beautiful.

Are the mountains what causing the rain to drop out before it gets to you? Kind of like the area east of the Rocky Mountains is very dry because all the moisture precipitates out as it passes over the mountains?

Just wondering if you situation is a permanent one or just a weird year for your area.

It's a weird year. The tallest hills nearby are only about 800 feet higher than here, so that would not make much rain shadow effect. A farmer I know about 12 miles SE of here has received over five inches total in the same time period, in four separate rains nicely spaced out. Some areas to the west about 15 miles have received about three inches. North about 8 miles, three inches. Build a pond, cause a desert to develop.

John, I've gone through years of that. I could see rain close but it seldom came to my place. I even mentioned it to Lusk. He lives about 60 miles away but had noticed it.

And then we got 2 years of floods.

I have always heard droughts are preferable to floods, but not to the fish.

We had absolutely no rain for the first 11 days in August, and very little rain in July. My pond went from full pool the end of May to around 50 vertical inches low on August 11th. I was mowing grass growing in bluegill bed depressions.....

We received about 3/4" rain on the 13th, then on the 15th, from 11 am until 5 pm we had roughly another inch. From 5 pm until 11 pm we received 7 5/8" or rain, and from 11 pm until 6 am on the 16th, we received another 3/4" or so. In a span of 12 hours we had 8 3/4" of rain, and a total of 9 5/8" of rain in about 18 hours. My pond was going out the overflow on the morning of the August 17th.

Since then the pond has bounced up and down a few inches, but we seem to keep getting rain in 1/2" to 1" increments, and those rains come all at once.

The mosquitos have returned like it is the first warm week in the Spring too.

Some people near here had more rain than I did, and many people had flood waters where it never flooded before. I still am finding things that got wet and have to be thrown out.

We did get a little rain this last week(3") and it was most since end of May, but too many cracks in the ground for any runoff.

I finally got 1/2 inch yesterday, did little good for pond. They are getting heavy rain again today about 15-20 miles north of here, where it's not needed.

John. I have been in my new house almost exactly 2 years. the pond was complete a few months before the house. I haven't had enough rain here for anything during the warm months. I sodded my lawn and planted seed on fence lines and around the pond. My grass has really suffered. My pond was down 20 inches 3 weeks ago. i have been pumping water from a nearby stream and almost have it back full. I am in the process of doing something about an electric pump for the pond. I have been using a gas pump rigged to a 5 gallon bucket of fuel. My place is exactly like your, everyone around me gets plenty of rain.i have seen it rain like crazy less than a mile from my house several times in the last month and I not get a drop. My friend lives about 10 minutes from me and we have joked about him having a micro climate for 15 years. he always gets rain and people 3 blocks away won't get a drop. I think i have a micro climate, but opposite of his.

My creek has not had enough water to be worthwhile to pump it for over four weeks. No flow at all, just a few small pot holes full of ozark minnows and gambusia. I estimate it has over 500 acres of watershed, at least.

Wow, I'm glad I'm not in this alone! This is the lowest my pond has been since it was filled 2 years ago. I also can pump from a stream below but it's way to dry. Meanwhile just 30 minutes north of here they keep getting rain almost daily. Im the curse of death!

The 10 day forecast for my area hot with no chance of rain.

Same problem here. We have a rain deficit of over 8 inches for this year, and are now labeled as in severe drought. It will rain like a SOB within view, but not a drop here.
One thing I have observed over the years is wet areas promote more rain, dry areas trend dry. The microclimate is influenced by existing conditions.
Luckily our pond still has plenty of water even though it is down 24 inches, and our well is still running. The mower is not, and the vegetable garden has up and died. I refuse to use our well to irrigate and take the chance of running it dry. One of the scariest thoughts is a wife unable to take a shower.

Me too Squid. I time my Wifes showers by the calendar; not the clock.

We got missed again today. Some places about 30 miles north of here had flash flooding with up to five inches of rain. Still only 0.9 inches of rain here in the last 44 days. One farming weather and drought monitoring site says we need over seven inches to break the drought.

And we are getting hammered again with flash flood warnings.

We received just over an inch of rainfall before daylight this morning. It more than doubled our rainfall totals since July 26. It helped a little, but the creek is still dry except a few small pot holes, and it only raised the pond about 1-1/8 inches. Some areas near here have had five inches or more this past week. More rain is forecast for late next week, but that has been the case for many weeks, and when we get close to the forecast date the rain is taken out of the forecast.

We got 2.5 Thursday night and 1.7 Friday night.

We are not strangers to having a muddy harvest but it is unusual to have it muddy in September for corn harvest. We don't usually have a muddy harvest till the latter half of bean harvest in November.

This year may turn out to be an exception. About 25% done with corn and should be about 75% at this date. Some years finished by now.

I always go to Husker Harvest Days (big farm machinery show) in Nebraska and most years we are done or close to done with corn harvest and often take a van load of the crew with me. Not this year. Show starts Tuesday and I will be going by myself.

snrub, I just returned from a fishing trip to Tenn, Miss. Alabama and traveled through Ark and La. Most every corn field was standing but looked like harvest time. Guessing all of the fields were wet for harvest. The Soy beans fields looked really green like at my small fields of beans. Seems to me, its been the wettest yr this year. Send me a pm if u need someone to harvest one of those old bucks that are into your bean and corn fields. Just kidding with u, seems like I just set in the deer stands to watch them any more, looking for that special one. Maybe all the rain will drive up corn prices if not able to harvest do to wet fields. I know little about big farming other than I used to know family that did some serious wheat farming.
John F, I hope u and others needing rain get what u need as I know a low pond pretty much sucks !!

Tracy

Tracy I've got plenty of guys hunting bucks. It's the does that are the problem. They keep crapping out babies.

I remember when I was a kid seeing a deer was almost unheard of. Now we have herds. Wild turkeys were not around here until they were introduced (some on my families land) in the mid 70's. Now we have groups of 30-40 pretty common.

For the hunters of the area, we are blessed with wildlife.

Ouch! Unless I'm reading the regs wrong, a non-resident has to apply early in a drawing, the tag is $442.50 if your name is pulled from the hat, then each doe tag is another $52.50. I didn't see where a non-resident could just buy an antlerless tag. Am I missing something?

I'm not a hunter but I think that sounds right. My buddy from Seattle wanted to hunt deer here and I think that is what he ran into. Big dollars to get into the lottery with no guarantee of even getting a tag. I could get landowner easy but he could not use the tag. Wanted to bring his grandson with him for a deer but they ended up bringing shotguns and going after Geese instead because the tag and license was easy for that. (and a week before they came there were loads of snow geese on the old pond)

I have several employees and grandson that hunt the properties, but I have not hunted anything since a teenager so I do not keep up with it. Too busy when I was making a living and too many other fun activities now. It just never floated my boat that much. I prefer motor cycle riding (summer) and scuba diving (winter in a warmer climate). Those are my passions............along with the ponds now.

I have a few friends that used to hunt Kansas just a few yrs back until they recently changed the laws for non resident deer hunters. Since then they no longer hunt in Kansas because of the new system. I was told the state residents were not happy about all the non residents hunting the big bucks, not sure this is the true story. I believe Kansas is known for some really nice buck hunting, most likely due to all the corn and soy beans that grow there. It's all about the food and not so much about genetics from all I read. I have hunted Kansas several times but it was always for Pheasant and duck. We would hunt the duck early morn and then afternoon hunt the upland birds. Sometime the snow would make for tough walking the fields. But still have some great memories of those Kansas hunts.

Tracy

We just got missed by a big rain that passed about 15 miles north of here. Got 1/4 inch here. Things are getting very worrisome for the pond.....

Missed again. Significant rainfall just to the N and S last night. Only about 0.3 inches here. I am wondering if it could be terrain, but that seems implausible. We are still in the summer pattern, with potential rains coming from the SW.

If you are like us John the averages will catch up with one or two big rains. It will be ark building consideration time.

I'm right there with you John. I watch it split and go north and south of me. Got a trace last night, but not even enough to make mud. I wished it would stop in the spring. and now want it to start, but sure hope we don't have many more of those 10-15" / week rains like in the spring though....

Missed again. Substantial rains to the N and E. Only a few drops here. I am expecting a major fish kill if no rain soon. Now 32-1/4 inches low.
Did you guys in Texas ever get to total despair about the possibility of rainfall?
There is an old drilled well on my property about 600' from the pond. What's the cheapest way of telling if it would supply substantial water?

John, I/we went through 5 years of drought.

John, locate a local water well company and work something out with them. I have a good working relationship with my water well company and I am sure u can do the same. Maybe they will run a used pump down the hole if elec is close by. Used, rebuilt pumps are available here. the key, is available elec. And like u, I have not seen fall rains at my place. Rained all around, but has missed me

Yeah, we've had rain but I now need RAIN. About 2 weeks ago, I got 2.5 inches but it fell; softly over 2 days.

Dave, I have not had even a 1/2" of rain this fall or late summer. I have had to irrigate some of my wildlife food plots and my pond is down at least a foot and that is with adding some well water, I still add the well water but have slowed down the additions due to me killing some fish off this past Sept due to low Do. I think I now have that West Texas drought in E Texas. This is the driest fall I have seen in many years

What does the very beginning of a fish kill due to drought look like? I would like to harvest as much as possible beforehand, as I have a lot of feed tied up in the catfish. Advance forecast predicts no rain for at least a month (if you can believe advance forecast).

I'm looking at a similar forecast. We received 1/10" a few days ago. That's pretty much it for October. I'm down close to 3', but still have 12-13' depth. We've been taking a lot of YP out this fall, but I do not anticipate a fish kill.
John, I sure hope you get a big rain soon. I keep thinking I'll get rain one of these days, but it isn't happening.
The well idea is interesting, but I don't know if I can produce enough water to impact a 3/4 acre pond that's losing 1/4" day. No Elec near the pond either. I'm going to wait it out. Not much else I can do.

John even if you can get some of the fish out, it should help a lot. As the water gets lower the fish concentration in pounds of fish per gallon of water gets higher. Removing any amount of fish has to help reduce that concentration level. That should help the remaining fish and help with water quality.

I've been removing lots of GS and some RES from my tiny 1/20th acre forage pond for just that reason. Reduce the fish concentration for the winter months on such a small pond to help prevent any problems.

I would think the smaller the BOW in my case(or the amount of water in the BOW in your case) everything becomes more critical a lot more quickly if things start to go bad. It just seems logical to me that a larger BOW would have more buffering capacity for problems. Thus a person would need to manage the smaller BOW's (or reduced water levels in BOW's) more carefully.

SetterGuy:
Your 1/4 inch a day losses are most likely due to nothing but evaporation, with the high water temp compared to the dewpoints, and the sunny, windy days we are having. My losses are now from 1/16 to 1/4 inch per day depending on temp, sunshine, wind, and humidity.

TGW1:
After researching the subject:
There are not any water well companies nearby that do tests that I can find. There has been a huge proliferation of rural water lines around here in the past 25 years, making well usage limited to the most remote areas.
It would cost me minimum $500 to even run a test, with the cost of a pump, pipe, and wiring. It's about 200 ft from the house to the well. Most wells historically used around here only produced about 5 gallons/minute or so, some much more, and some much less, it varies widely. Many wells had very high iron and sulfur content, which gets worse with extensive pumping. There aren't any cheap used pumps even on CL. I guess it's not worth the risk to me at this point. If I knew the well would produce over 10 gallons/minute of decent water long term, I would do it. To only have a few hundred gallons of water a day into the pond wouldn't help a whole lot, and sulfur water could be toxic. If the creek would start up again, I can get about 3,500 gallons/hr of pre-aerated water into the pond.

John, you are correct when it comes to water wells and the water supply. And that is why I suggested getting with a water well company. Many people don't understand that a water well drilled does not always mean there is going to be water or if there is water, it will be good water. There are areas here that a water well might be a dry hole. Even after spending thousands of bucks, it's a dry hole.

Hopefully the change in seasons will kick this weather pattern in the family jewels and you will see improvement. The way the climate is going, it is getting harder to get cold air incursions low enough in latitude to tap into Gulf moisture down your way. As the seasons progress, the cold air gets further south.

Don't pray too hard though, it can easily and too quickly go the other way. IMHO drought is better than flood!

Definitely getting hard to get those fronts through. A/C running on 3rd of Nov. We were supposed to get a cold front through yesterday but it didn't make it. Temp in the mid 70's now. We did not get ice cover at all on the pond last winter.
It's been over ten months since we received a single rain of over 3 inches. Got 10.45 inches of relatively warm rain last December 27-28. The aftermath of that kept the ponds near full for several months, or it would be a super drought now.

John, I almost hate to say this. I've had 2.02 inches since midnight and 3.03 for the week. Pond is/was down about 2.5 ft.

I'll get up there(70 miles) hopefully later in the week.

Dang! Rub it in! We have only received a trace. A big storm that dumped over an inch passed about 30 miles east of us. We might get a couple tenths tonight.

John, I've owned my land for about 30 years. With the exception of the last 3 years, rain always fell "over there". When I bought the place it had a 1/4 acre, 7 ft deep, pond that dried up multiple times. The spring fed creek finally dried up about 6 years ago. Even with the plentiful rains of recent years, the spring is still not recharged.

I once mentioned it to Lusk and he said that he had noticed that my area seemed to be the area that rains came close to but skipped. And yet, he generally got pretty good rains at his place.

Prior to the Texas floods, my 1.5 acre pond that started out as 17 ft deep, became a 2 ft deep, 1/3 acre mud hole. I certainly understand your feelings. Been there; done that. This was a serious 5 year drought that followed a lot of dry years.

Prior to the rains, Wichita Falls that is about 60 miles North, was recycling potty water for household use. Several North Texas towns had their lakes go dry and had to pipe water from a pretty good distance or shut the town down. Ranchers sold their cattle because there was nothing to eat or drink. By the time it started raining there was a beef shortage in America with the resulting high prices at the grocery store.

I know a whole bunch about it raining elsewhere. A good book about Texas droughts is Elmer Keltons "The time it never rained".

We got about 0.3 inches total yesterday through last night. Not nearly enough.

We didn't experience much drought here during the Texas dry years, except for summer of 2012. A lot of shallow ponds dried up that year.

I wanted my pond to be deeper than the 11 feet we dug, but my pond builder said we might hit rock or gravel if we went much deeper, and have leaks in the basin. He said he dug one pond 45 feet deep at the insistence of the owner and it is a dry hole. Oh well, I still have eight feet of water in the deep side and seven in the other side, but my surface area is way down. I have only lost 4-1/8 inches in the past thirty days.

Thats .1375" per day!! I wish I was somewhere close to that! Is that with no rain at all?? Or lost with the little spits of rain? I'm losing .50-.57 per day. It has not slowed or sped up...so I'm assuming its in the basin. I'm WAY down. I was at full pool during the spring...first time ever, now during this drought its really been hit hard. My thing is the loss has not changed at all. I'm like you, and have lost ALOT of surface area. I'm between 5-6' down from full. I keep thinking maybe it will stop or slow so I can narrow down where it is going. Glad you got something though. Maybe it will get your winter grasses going.

We got a whopping .08" the other day. Another front went thru this morning. I'm hoping for a bit more. I'm still losing .25" a day.. It has been almost a year since I had any water going out the overflow pipe. Wonder how it's affecting water quality?

peachgrower: That's the total losses with the little spits of rain. Losses since last good rain July 26-27 are 29-3/8 inches including the little spits of rain. It's 34-3/4 inches below the overflow.

SetterGuy: I am also worried about water quality. The water has cooled some and I have cut food back to a calculated maintenance amount, so fish don't lose weight, but probably won't gain either. You have far more water quantity than I do, and are further north. I think you will be OK for this year, just don't over feed, and catch a few eaters when you can.

I'll be checking temps again this weekend. The pond was at 60 degrees last weekend, and the fish were feeding pretty aggressively. I've kept about 60 YP so far this fall. That's about all I've caught. I'll keep some more this weekend.
Got some rain today, not much, and very little in the forecast for the next two weeks.

We were missed again. Look at the huge rain radar echo in N. Central Arkansas. That stuff blew up into heavy rain about 40 miles east of here, after passing through here as drizzle.

Arg! That sucks. I feel your pain and frustration.

We got our heavy precipitation lately in the form of snow. 15 inches in 4 hours, then another 6 inches over another 12 hours. Now it is just sitting there, on the ground surface, not doing anyone any good apart from being pretty. I still need to get my swimming float dock out of the deep pit that is my unfilled pond, it is still down too low to get it out. There was a nice skim of ice on the pond this morning already!!! Not ready for this. Too soon!

We finally got 1/4 inch overnight. The pond is up 1/4 inch too.

I got 1.3" last night finally. Nothing really changed, but just feels better knowing it rained. Now I have got just over 8" since June 14th. To Compare, I got 21" last November in one month, then averaged about 15" per month thru April 2016!

Brian,
If we could get 1.3 inches in one night, my creek would start flowing, and I could pump and multiply the 1.3" many fold.

The pond has now lost exactly seven inches in the past 60 days, counting the piddly showers we have had with no run off. I would guess that is all evaporation. Last rain with any run-off at all was July 26-27 at 2.1".

Guess you missed that rain yesterday? Looked like most of the state was getting good rain. We got some, but not sure how much.

We got a little, (0.65") but am about 40 miles too far west to get the best of it. Plus, it wasn't a hard rain, no run off.

We received just over a half inch rain Friday, then a total of about 1.6 inches last night and early this morning. Pond #1 bottomed out about 37-3/4 inches below full pool and is now up 11-1/2 inches and still rising. I hope it keeps raining like a normal winter, and our drought is broken. I think we will be about 14 or 15 inches below normal for 2016. The brand new pond has a puddle in the middle about 30 x 40 feet and about 2.5 feet deep.

This rain was the first in five months that had visible run-off.

Edit: I was able to pump a little from the intermittent creek and bring pond #1 up to less than 13 inches below the overflow. That's an increase of a little over 25 vertical inches since last week. The surface area is much greater.

Good deal John. Sounds like you will sure have enough water in the new pond to add FHM and if you get some more all your fish.

2016 rainfall was officially 33.45 inches; that's about 14 inches below normal. We had a couple inches less locally, from my measures.