Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Pond Boss How much Rain?

I could/should try. When it comes up though, it immediately kills the grass. I think I'll throw down some seed anyway. Thanks

snrub,
My folks used to live on the edge of Parsons, which must be near you. Dad had 2 nice ponds that he stocked with CC.

Up here in NY, we are 4 inches over normal for the last two months. Last Thursday we has a 2.5 inch gully washer, which is fare rarer in NY than southern states. Everything was saturated before it rained, so it was all runoff! I was out rescuing our driveway in the downpour, and diverting chocolate cake batter from entering the pond. For the most part the effort paid off. The driveway only had minor damage, and the pond didn't get too muddy. Lots of other driveways had bad washouts, and a road washed out 2 miles from us.

If our pond was empty, it would have easily filled in this one event! Raging torrents of water going down the little creek that normally dries up in the summer.

Since early this morning, we have received three inches of rain, and still coming down some. The creek is out of banks. Haven't looked at the ponds yet, but they are probably over the e spillways. The old pond spills into the new, so maybe got small BG in the new pond now, no fry this year yet.

Edit: Both ponds are over emergency spillways. FHM are running upstream from new pond to old pond.

I'm about 30-35 minutes due east of Parsons.

Good news John. It looks like I may ave got .7". That's better than 0!

We are now up to 3.7". Another 2.5" is predicted for the coming weekend.

You will eventually get that big pond filling rain. Back in the worst of our drought, by mid December, I thought it might not rain again for a year, the way trends were going. If we get what's predicted this weekend, we will be caught up in only two months time.

Edit: Rain has ended. I measured about 3.5+ inches in the gauge out at the pond and 3.9+ inches in the gauge at the edge of the back porch, so I will say 3.75 inches since about 2:00 AM this morning. I thought the rain had stopped but we got one more stray cell.

Both ponds are over the spillways, old pond spilling into new. I saw several FHM migrating upstream into the old pond, and found one BG downstream from the new, so probably not a big fish loss. The new pond's spillway is very gentle; it backs up onto almost flat ground, then gently flows very slightly downward out into the hayfield.

Steady light rain here, and the pond is getting runoff, but it still has about 4' to go to spill. If this keeps up through the weekend, it may get there. I went down and threw a few handsfull of pellets, but nothing came up to feed.

Turtlemtn,
I hope you get it filled. It's a good feeling to see a little bit going out the overflow. As long as nothing is washing out anywhere. My clay is like concrete. Didn't wash anywhere.
John,
Don't you wish we could get some of this rain in July and August? Ha

We got plenty last July, just almost none from August-February.

For most people in this area, I suspect the rain is just being wasted now. The ground is saturated, their ponds are full, and the water is just going down the creeks. A couple times at my old pond I watched fingerling BG go over the spillway.

One weather service is predicting that we will get about seven more inches of rain this weekend. Another is only predicting about four inches.

I'm hoping for an additional inch or two. According to the weather app, pretty good chance of rain over the next 3 days. Climate dot com says I've received 1.6" so far.
I doubt our ground has reached saturation yet. It's just been so incredibally dry for so long. If it's all light rain, we won't have much runoff.

SetterGuy,
Possible good rain coming your way. We are supposed to get three to six inches here. Flash flood watch is on. I hope we only get two inches and it comes slowly. The groundwater is low, but our topsoil is well soaked.

I'm guessing I'll need 10" of rain over a short period of time to fill my pond. A flash flood watch starts for here tonight and runs through Sun. night, so I may find out what it takes to fill it.

Here's the latest rain forecast from NOAA:


A BROAD AREAL AVERAGE 2"+ AREA DEPICTED FROM EASTERN OK---NW AR---CENTRAL TO SOUTHERN MO---SOUTHERN IL---SOUTHERN IN INTO FAR NORTHERN KY.
IN THIS AREA---MAX AMOUNTS EXPECTED FROM NORTHEAST OK---NW AR INTO
SOUTHERN MO WHERE AREAL AVERAGE 5"+ AMOUNTS POSSIBLE AND ISOLATED
MAX AMOUNTS OF 7-9" WHERE TRAINING MAXIMIZES.

We have some potentially nasty storms coming in this weekend. I need the rain but not the high winds and hail.

The forecasters were completely wrong. We only got 1/4 inch of rain last night, and by the radar, it has all moved away from here. They were predicting 8 inches by forecasting done yesterday afternoon. Something is seriously wrong with forecasting lately.

They the only folks that ain't held accountable at their job! That's the way it is here also

They have been spot on here. Over an inch so far, and another 2" expected. The stream channels will get a good cleaning.

I am getting to the point where I have little to NO faith in the forecasts. Even "future radar" is horrible. I just watch the radar trends.

John I have watched the radar showing rain at our location and there was none there at all.

Maybe the radar feed was out and the weather service was "simulating" it through computer modeling. I think that happens.

Maybe so- I just use it a guideline anyway

I wish it would rain here.