And then my brother e-mailed me yesterday and said, "Every year on May 8th I’m reminded of the fabled 'May 8th Rains' we had one year, and talked about for decades it seems."
(And we're STILL talking about it, aren't we?)
I wondered how bad that rain really was. Fortunately, through the miracle of the Internet, it's easy to look up historic weather events, and it turns out it was the biggest one-day rainstorm recorded in Tampa since 1891. It deluged the city with 11.45 inches (290.8 mm) of rain. It was a Tuesday, so I must have been at school, but I honestly don't remember much about it -- except the after-effects, our flooded back yard and waterlogged drainage ditches. We lived on a lake, and I remember my mom being worried the water would rise high enough to get into the house. Fortunately, that didn't happen.
Here's a visual representation from this web site of Tampa's 1979 rainfall to show just how crazy that day was:
The Tampa Bay Times looked back at the storm five years ago, including reprinting a remarkable story by a reporter who saw a woman drown. Fortunately I never dealt with anything that personally traumatic during my reporting career. (They say the storm dropped more than 19 inches of rain -- that must have been the entire weather event, or maybe the figure for the month.)
I looked back at my childhood journals to see if I mentioned the rain, but my entries that year jump from April 16 to July 13. So apparently, as a 12-year-old, I wasn't inspired to write anything down.
Anyway, it was interesting to reminisce about this with my brother and then go back and get the data. I love the Internet. Most of the time.
My dahlias are all having a terrible time getting launched this year. If snails and slugs don't gnaw them off right at the ground, then squirrels get into the pots and break off the young stems. (The wire is keeping them from digging up the tubers.) It's frustrating, but I'm just acknowledging to myself that I can't fight nature and these plants are going to have to fend for themselves. If they die, they die. I have too many dahlias anyway.
I spent yesterday morning doing more library inventory in the Lower School. I got to the end of the picture book shelves, and the computer was telling me 560 books were missing. WHAT?! I knew that wasn't possible -- even the most disorganized library doesn't lose nearly 600 books in a year. We looked at the titles and realized the missing books were mostly about holidays -- Christmas, Halloween, Valentines Day. It turns out they're all stored on carts in a back room. So I found the carts and scanned all those books, and now we're down to about 50 missing. I suspect many of those will turn up elsewhere in the library or in the school.
(Top photo: Green alkanet, a relative of borage, in our garden. Many people treat this plant like a weed, and it CAN be a thug, but the bees love it and we've been letting it grow.)
We still talk about the Big Snow Years and they were even further back.
ReplyDeleteThank goodness for weather as a topic of conversation!
My 2 dahlias in pots were looking like yours as the slugs etc were getting at them.......I put them on a glass table at the bottom of the garden, and , just checked, they are sprouting again! ( though there was a tiny slug on the table)
ReplyDeleteYou lived on a lake? But I have seen pictures of your childhood home and it was by a lake - not actually on it - a la Venice, Italy. Good luck tracking down the fifty missing books!
ReplyDeleteThat was an incredible deluge. Fascinating that you and your brother have such a strong connection with the date. Those flowers are beautiful. I’d let it grow, too. As for the dahlias, that would really annoy me.
ReplyDeleteOnly we of a certain age say 'miracle of the internet'.
ReplyDeleteThe graph certainly tells the story of the deluge.
I just don't have a suggestion for the dahlia problem, but in this case as your say, best to let nature deal with them.
That storm must have been loud!
ReplyDeleteIt's funny the things that stick in your mind for years and years.
ReplyDeleteThe flood we had just a few weeks ago here was a similar event. I think we got almost 11 inches of rain in one day.
ReplyDeleteOf course I've already forgotten the date that happened on.
The internet is pretty amazing sometimes, isn't it?
That's a lot of rain! Our big memory events usually involve snow or ice, so I guess we get our extra precipitation in the winter months. Except Hurricane Hugo in 1989 - that was a huge mess in NC.
ReplyDeleteI have some big rains in my memories too but they all top out around the 6 inch mark. Your rain was twice that which I can't even fathom.
ReplyDelete11 inches of rain in a day? Our average rainfall is 12 in per year.
ReplyDeleteWeather events are memorable. I remember the MA snow of 1979, high winds, 4 ft. of snow and drifts to 14 ft. Cars were stuck on highways with drivers inside, power was lost and trees fell. It took about 2-3 weeks to fully recover. Garden pests sometimes attack various plants and it becomes a war of wills. I had to surrender to deer problems. They eat many shrubs and flowering plants. I've learned to grow only shrubs, trees and flowers that the deer find distasteful.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting how weather events can stick with us over the years. There was one in my home town that popped into my head reading your post. It was the time I learned how wind could pull a huge tree right out of the ground. There were uprooted trees all over town.
ReplyDeletePeople say it rains a lot in Seattle but it really doesn't. At least, not like that! I remember being in Thailand and feeling a few drops on my head. In a few seconds, the water was pouring out of the sky, so much rain that I couldn't even see drops. It was like buckets of water being poured on my head. Of course I had no umbrella.
ReplyDeleteI looked back at Edmonton's record rainfall for one day, 6.5 inches in June 1970, so way less than you guys had. I have no memory of it, it was just before we moved east to Alberta. We've had some rain here but a drought is still being forecast.
ReplyDeleteGlad you found most of the books.
Wow! Thanks for sharing all that info on the deluge! One of my brothers is a weather freak, so I've shared it with him. In recent memory, the biggest one day rain for us was only 9", I think. Remnants of a Hurricane. A couple of months ago we had 5.5" in about 8 hours.
ReplyDeletebtw.... my grandson already has Swimmy (and it was a favorite for awhile) and interestedly enough, it originally came from my house! One of my kids must have gotten it at a school book sale or something and that's why I didn't remember it.
I can understand why you keep the Green Alkanet it is such a beautiful clear blue. It is just the sort of plant I could but in my wild area of garden if I can find some seeds to buy.
ReplyDeleteJane
Ain't the internet grand?!!! And I'm not surprised the twelve year-old you didn't log this one. I've been going through old journals of late and sometimes there are gaps of months! (And I was a lot older than 12 writing those!)
ReplyDeleteThe blue flowers are a nice color. I can see why you let them grow.
ReplyDeleteRain? What's that? Ha Ha.
ReplyDeleteSue: It's funny how stuff like that sticks in our memories!
ReplyDeleteFrances: It's amazing how crafty slugs can be!
YP: Don't English people say that -- such-and-such a property is "on" the lake, or "on" the North Sea?
Mitchell: It is funny how it was such a big deal for both of us. I remember heavy rains that September, too, and we joked about it being "another May 8"!
Andrew: Well, I'm glad I'm old enough to appreciate what a convenience it is. Kids today just take it for granted!
Boud: It probably was, but I don't remember that!
Bob: It really is. I wish I'd devoted those brain cells to something more meaningful.
Ms Moon: According to climatecenter.fsu.edu, "Tallahassee recorded a new daily precipitation record on April 11th with 4.89 inches." You probably had some additional rain the day before or after.
Bug: I remember driving north through the Carolinas after Hugo, and yeah, it was devastation.
Ed: Even I can't fathom it, and I was there!
Red: It was a very unusual rainfall.
Susan: I guess 1979 was a big year for weather! I can't even imagine battling something as big as a deer. I have enough trouble with slugs!
Sharon: Sounds like a tornado, maybe?
Margaret: Florida gets drenching rains regularly, particularly in the summer. But they usually only last half an hour or so. Nothing like May 8!
Pixie: You probably have similar weather to Red, even though you're farther north.
Kelly: I'm so glad your grandson has "Swimmy"!
Jane: Are you in England or in North America? I don't know much about the range or invasive potential of alkanet, but I'd check if it's not native to your area before planting it. If you're in England you probably already have it!
Jeanie: Yeah, same with me. In fact I have a gap of several years in my later high school and early college period. (I burned some of those journals!)
Allison: They look great with the forget-me-nots!
River: Ha! It's never around when you need it, is it?