Rain!

After a few days of spotty storms that hit some folks but not us, we finally had rain last night!  We actually were poured-on biking to work yesterday too, but as often happens in Madison, what hits the isthmus does not necessarily make it over the lake to us: when I got home it was humid but we didn't get more than a quarter-inch.

But in late afternoon, suddenly the forecast switched from a 50% to 90% chance of rain, and a huge system formed to the west.  We sat out on the hill as the front arrived:  a blast of cool air (70 mph in some spots!) pushed through, the temperature dropped almost 20 degrees, and we felt the first drops hit our faces.  Rain, glorious, steady, rain, fell for 2 hours--and another round of storms came through at midnight!  We ended up with at least an inch and a half.

The best part is how big the system was, no more spotty bits hitting the lucky, a big portion of central WI had a nice soaking rain, which may not save crops but will certainly help. I talked to a market vendor yesterday, who said their real worry was feeding stock this winter, so anything to grow pastures and hay fields is welcome.

Fingers crossed we're in a weather pattern that will bring more--at least the forecast has no temps higher than 94 for the next seven days, and rain chances in four.  That's something, anyway.