Will It Ever Quit Raining In Southwest Oklahoma?

Between the weekend drives to Duncan and OKC and just the normal commute around town, it's very strange to see the world around us so green this time of year. Honestly, there's not a single brown patch of grass anywhere I've driven since the grasses greened up this spring. What is up with this weather pattern of a hot wet summer? It's not supposed to be wet and rainy in Southwest Oklahoma. It's supposed to be hot and dry, just the way we like it.

Am I really complaining about the rain? Yeah. Normally, July 4th marks the point in the year where most people get to take a break from mowing the lawn. The ground is usually cracked and dry, the green grass turns pale and enters a state of very slow growing dormancy, and we don't usually have to cut that dry grass but two or three times until it starts to cool off in September... but here we are in late July still cutting twice a week enveloped by these brutal heat indices. (that the plural of index in case you need the thesaurus)

"But everything is so pretty" says the people that don't have to mow the grass. Ironically, I actually really like yard work. I talk about it every spring how important herbicides and fertilizer is to a lush and pristine weed-free lawn in those early months of the growing season... but that's only because a weed-free lawn stops growing when it gets too hot to be out mowing. Putting in the work early so you don't have to put in the harder work in the heat. As much as I love a glorious lawn, I don't water it. I've never watered it. I can't see the purpose or point in watering it because it only means hot labor this time of year. Yet, here we are, miserably hot and mowing constantly.

To add injury to Mother Natures insult, we have those South Texas sized mosquitoes that somehow have the strength and humidity to attack even in the middle of the day. Usually a temperate early morning and late evening creature, the weather has allowed them to forage for blood even in the hottest parts of the day. It's brutal. At some point, the weather will stabilize and Farmers Almanac will make up some reason why their wildly incorrect predictions for this year didn't happen the way they said, and we'll all remember the year it was green all summer in Southwest Oklahoma.