On Dry Ridge
We are a proud member of CoCoRaHs. The acronym is a mouthful, but it stands for- Community Collaborative rain, Hail and Snow Network. Every morning at 7 a.m., I log the rain or snow that has fallen in the past 24 hours. It is a simple visual gauge, one that needs to be read manually and then logged online through an app. It quickly gets added to the large database of members across the county. After a rain, I always like to look and see who else in the county got it. We have been a member for a year and a half and morning inspection of the rain gauge has become engrained.
When we moved to Madison County and found our home a decade ago, we learned that the land we inhabited was on Dry Ridge. I honestly didn’t give it much thought at the time. I figured it was just a landmark that people referenced. As years went by and summer thunderstorms passed by without dropping even a sprinkling of rain, I learned that we were in the very heart of Dry Ridge. Dry Ridge is a real phenomenon and a specific place on a map. Sometimes, and especially in the summers, I can look out and watch thunderstorms split apart and rejoin on the other side. I can smell rain; I can feel that it is close by. Dry Ridge phenomenon can either be explained by the rain shadows created by the nearby mountains- or I like to imagine it’s an unexplained curse of the area, that I will someday piece together.
CoCoRaHS has been a way to verify just how little rain we get compared to other parts of the county and the state. I have found what really makes us Dry Ridge is not a lack of rainfall in the cooler months but the lack of thunderstorms in the summer. Other parts of the county can get daily summer thunderstorms, and slammed with substantial rain with each storm. We are lucky to get them. This past summer was actually a good one for us. We didn’t get all the storms that everyone else got, but we got just enough rain to keep the grass growing, which is what I really care about. In years past, I grew exhausted with my rain dance. I danced and danced without success.
We got 54.11” of rain in the last 365 days. I feel fortunate to have got that much. It was the best year for grass on our farm in the 11 years I can remember. If only I kept daily rain readings though, it would serve me better than my memory.
When I was tallying up the totals below from our station MS. 31 and the highest rainfall in the county per month, I wasn’t surprised that June, July and August found the most divergence from our monthly rainfall and the highest total in the county. Station MS. 22 is the big winner most months. Eye popping 14.94” of rain for August compared to us at 4.47.” Besides February, we are within a couple inches of rain from the county’s highest members’ rainfall, in what I consider the cooler months(Jan-May& Sept-Dec.) September we had the 2nd highest in the county! So, all this data verifies my point. We are Dry Ridge because of those summer thunderstorms that don’t come our way! Why!? I’d love to know.
Precipitation Report 2020. as of November 18, 2020
rain to date in 2020: 48.47”
Monthly report below for 2020
(Our rain station compared with the highest rainfall station in our county for same month/year:)
Jan. 3.44” (highest in Madison County: 6.13”. NC.MS-25)
Feb: 6.67” (highest in Madison County: 10.57”. NC.MS-5)
March: 3.9” (highest in Madison County: 6.3”. NC.MS-19)
April: 7.01” (highest in Madison County: 8.11”. NC.MS-5)
May: 3.79” (highest in Madison County: 5.87”. NC.MS-23)
June: 2.92” (highest in Madison County: 8.03”. NC.MS-22)
July: 3.75” (highest in Madison County: 11.49”. NC.MS-22)
August: 4.47” (highest in Madison County: 14.94”. NC.MS-22)
September: 6.70” (highest in Madison County: 6.93”. NC.MS-22)
October: 4.38” (highest in Madison County: 5.73”. NC.MS-12)
November 1 to November 18: 1.29” (highest in Madison County: 2.45”. NC.MS-26)
