Rain in Real Texas

Texas Weather

Editor’s Note:  This is #4 in a series of articles on How To Be Texan, Wherever You Are.  You can simply appreciate a good rain and Be a Good Texan Wherever You Are to maintain your Texan status.

When I went off to college in the Texas Hill Country, my dorm mates thought it sorta odd that I would go to the glass door and look outside when it rained.  Then I would speculate on how much it rained, where it rained, and if it soaked in much or just ran off.  Having grown up in dry West Texas, I was overdosing on rain.  We’re a little obsessive about rain out here.

I was always appreciative of a good central Texas, Hill Country rain.  I was amazed at how often it rained.  My Houston acquaintances never understood my fascination with rain.  They were amazed when it did NOT rain so much.

And out in Real Texas, we never, ever, ever complained about any inconvenience when it did finally rain.  If it rained out an event, we rescheduled on account of rain.  Everyone always understood.  You can always be a Good Texan Wherever You Are by complimenting a good rain.  Even if you live in a rainforest.

Fact:  Sometimes with the rain comes hail.  And the hail in Texas is just….well, bigger than other places.  There have been reports of hailstorms wreaking havoc on entire cattle herds.  And when the hail reaches populated areas, the property damage can be tremendous.  It literally beats the roofs off of houses, barns and outbuildings.  These are some actual pictures of some hailstones that fell on our house in 2006.  Notice the size of the hail in comparison to the golf ball and the baseball.  Those are some Texas size hailstones.  Yes, they beat the metal roofs off of all our buildings.

Fact:  Preachers in West Texas have been hired and fired on their ability to pray rain out of the sky.  Some cowboys and ranchers don’t remember preacher’s names, but do recall if they “Had a good rain prayer in ‘em.”  Some rain prayers were very specific.  Such as “Dear Lord, we are asking for a rain.  And not just a little drizzle, we want a big rain to fill our tanks and draws and sustain us for the summer.  Lord……give us a rain to remember that will make our pastures green and our cattle fat…….”    West Texas native J.B. Bitner, Jr. usually had a good rain prayer in him for a Baptist preacher.  He knows about rain because he was raised up on a dirt farm near Veribest.

We actually have attended prayer services imploring Divine Intervention on bringing rain.  They call them rain prayer services.  And we have rain dances.  Not Indian style rain dances, but rather West Texas style boot-scootin’ rain dances.

We don’t want any ambiguous rain prayers out here in Real Texas.  We mean business when we pray for rain.  There’s a Catholic Bishop over in San Angelo we also hold in high esteem along with Preacher Bitner for his ability to pray rain out of dry West Texas skies and organize pleas to the Almighty for rain.

Fact:  As I write this, it has been nearly 3 months since the last measurable precipitation fell here. It was getting dry.  We were concerned about grass fires.  When the fires out here get going, they burn thousands of acres at a time along with fences, oilwells, cattle, sheep, deer, jackrabbits, and other wildlife that can’t get out of the way.  I ignore TV reports of a 300 acre fire in California.  That’s not much of a fire as fire as far we are concerned.

This picture was taken from our front porch.  The last grass fire in our area came right up into my yard.  As soon as I smelled the smoke, I ran out into the front yard and set off every sprinkler I had.  The smoke was billowing up and headed straight for our house which is located out in the country.  A gust of wind diverted the fire which had jumped the paved road and started burning the grass in my yard.  The fire turned and burned the pasture next to my house.  The sprinkler system saved the rest of the yard and possibly my house.  We need rain and we appreciate rain.

Fact:  Average annual rainfall where I live is about 15″.  Many times less, sometimes more.  When it is more, it seems to come all at the same time like 10” or 12” all in one place.  And then here comes a wall of water down the draws.

A large part of West Texas is on the edge of the Chihuahuan desert geographically, although my particular little section of paradise is anything but a desert.  It is right smack in the middle of West Texas, but there is a several square mile area here dominated by a spring fed creek that makes it look very much like the Texas Hill Country.  You can see the Spring Creek in  the background off my dock area.  Sounds funny to say dock area in the middle of West Texas….

You can smell a good Texas rain long before it gets to you.   You can also see a good rain comin’ from a long ways off, especially at night.  Some of the raindrops are as big as silver dollars and they splatter when they hit the ground.  If the ground is powdery dry, the drops splatter mud.

In El Paso, it rains a little over 8″ a year.  In Orange, Texas, down almost on the Louisiana border, it averages almost 58″ of rain a year.  ‘Course that is about a 900 mile span.  Yes, the geographic areas of Texas are that big.  You take your pick, and you can find the right amount of rainfall for your taste in Texas.

Some of my earliest recollections of rain involve a strange occurrence after a rain.  The frogs would immediately start hollering.  There were a lot of them and they were very loud.  No, I don’t know where they came from, but the frog cacophony was quite loud.  Could be they were actually toads, but we didn’t know the difference.  A frog was a frog to us back then.  Occasionally there would be an outbreak of miniature frogs all over the place after a rain.

It seemed Biblical in a West Texas way.  The frogs are quite loud.

Our respect for rain grew as we came to understand its importance to our way of life and how rain or no rain made a living for some and financial ruin for others and how a whole small town’s economy sometimes depended on a good rain.

A hard West Texas rain can cause a literal wall of water 10’ high to run down draws, which are natural gullies that are sometimes small and sometimes deep and steep walled.  When driving down a Texas roadway and you come to a draw, there will always be a water level gauge close to the road to tell motorists how high the water is. In the Kerrville, Fredericksburg, Comfort area, you better pay attention to the water gauges before crossing a draw.

Many a country kid has missed school because the draws came down and blocked the way into town.  Many a sleepy truck driver has hit water over the road.  Some lived to tell about it.

We call some of our rains by different names like frog stranglers, turd floaters, gully washers and more depending on your religion, but we always love a good rain.  We love a good rain because we know it could literally stop raining at some point in time.

Like it has now as I write this.  Some Texas communities are down to a 6 month or less supply of water.

One of the best books ever on the subject of Texas rain is called “The Time It Never Rained” by Elmer Kelton.  Elmer chronicles the Texas drought of the 1950’s in his classic book.  Elmer Kelton captures the essence of West Texas, the part of Texas I call Real Texas, with a firsthand knowledge of the people and their independent ways of this great part of the state.

On Ranch Road 33 north out of Big Lake, motorists sometimes have to go over a hundred miles out of the way when Centralia Draw comes down and blocks the road for hours at a time.  But it doesn’t happen very often.

On highway 67 when it rains big on Elkins Ranch, Tee Pee draw will go over the highway bridge and rise over 20 feet.  Otherwise it is a dry, mesquite filled depression in the pasture that snakes off out of site.

In years past a big rain washed away a good portion of the towns of Ozona and Sanderson, and completely wiped out Ben Ficklin near San Angelo.  I have seen my usually docile and tranquil Spring Creek transformed into a mile wide raging torrent.  I currently live just a few steps from its banks and watch it carefully after a rain is reported around Barnhart some 20 miles away.  It will come up big again….some day.

We prefer the kind of rain that is slow and steady, soaking into a grateful ground.  What we usually get though is a violent, explosive Texas thunderstorm.  When my wife first moved to West Texas she was sitting out on the front porch when a crackling lightning bolt spidered and prolonged itself across the sky and ended when a very loud explosive boom that seemed to her to be next door.

Her hair stood on end with static electricity and the loudness of the report shook her bones.  She jumped up out of her chair and ran wide eyed inside the house.  She was thoroughly frightened by the seemingly endless barrage of lightning strikes and booming artillery of thunder.

It’s quite a spectacle sometimes.  When he was young, I would take my son outside on the porch when the thunder was booming and the lightning crackling and we would comment about how ‘good’ a particular flash was along with accompanying thunder.  It was my hope that later on he would not be as scared of a booming thunderstorm as some folks are and he seems to be OK today.

There are those who are absolutely terrified of a Texas thunderstorm.  They have a right to be……..some thunderstorms are quite violent.

Texans still know how to appreciate a good rain.  We smell it coming.  In these days of technology, we see the rain stretched out over the computer screen 600 miles wide and see county by county progress.  My brother calls from another part of the state and says, “I see ya’ll are getting some good rain.”  We notice and still talk about such common things out here….out here in the part of Texas called Real Texas, where a good rain is appreciated and commented on, and talked about, and speculated on how much we got.

Every time it rains we do it all again.

We also take a certain amount of pride in being able to withstand heat in Texas because, well, it gets really hot here.  There are also different kinds of heat.  There is the dry West Texas variety where it hits 110 and nobody complains too much and then there is Houston heat and when it hits 100 for several days in a row, it’s like being in a steam bath or a sauna.

Here are a few favorite conversation starters about the Texas heat:

IT’S SO HOT IN Texas . . .

….Birds have to use potholders to pull worms out of the ground.

….Trees are whistling for dogs.

….The best parking place is determined by shade instead of distance.

….Hot water comes from both taps.

….You can make sun tea instantly.

….You learn seat belt buckles make a good branding iron.

….When the temperature drops below 95 F (35 C) and you feel chilly.

….You discover in July it only takes two fingers to steer your car.

….You discover you can get sunburned through your car window.

….You actually burn your hand opening the car door.

….You break into a sweat the instant you step outside at 7:30 A.M.

….Your biggest bicycle wreck fear is, “What if I get knocked out and end up baking on the pavement?”

….You realize asphalt has a liquid stage.

….Potatoes cook underground, so all you have to do is pull one out, and add butter.

….Cows are giving evaporated milk.

….Farmers are feeding their chickens crushed ice to keep them from laying hard boiled eggs!

….Baptists are starting to baptize by sprinkling,

Methodists are using wet-wipes,

Presbyterians are giving rain checks,

And Catholics are praying for the wine to turn back into water!

So be appreciative of a good rain in Texas whenever it comes.  It will help cool things down a bit in the summertime.  We love a good rain out here and you can too, and you can Be Texan Wherever You Are when you get a good rain…..and appreciate it.

You can also be a good Texan and explain to the good folks elsewhere  that it’s not really that hot in those lesser states compared to Texas heat, and you can repeat the  points listed above.

I’m David out in Real Texas

…Saying you can be Texan, Wherever You Are!

Tagged as: Texas drought, Texas Lifestyle, texas rain