Of course Dale was talking about longtime weather recorder Fred Marken and the dry years of the 1970s when farmers and businessmen were leaving the area with empty pockets. Fred lived to be 100 years old and was a fun-loving guy. When he talked about his weather report he would say, “I may not be right, but I’m OFFICIAL!”

Today is much different from the 1970s as we have already reached half of a year’s annual average precipitation during the month of June alone.

People were sandbagging on the northeast edge of Woonsocket on Wednesday and Thursday of last week, trying to stop the Sand Creek from flooding the town.

And homes and businesses in Wessington Springs took on some water during the 4.3 inch rain that fell on Sunday night/early Monday morning of June 20-21.

Farmers, and the rural roads that serve them, have taken the brunt of the impact so far. With 10 inches of rain in a month, the normal farm work has been stopped. Erosion has also been tough on fields filled with tender crop plants.

Another monster thunderstorm swept across Huron and the Alpena portion of Jerauld County on Saturday night of this past weekend. That one sent unwanted water to Woonsocket, another town that is suffering with flooding.

A farmer from south of town, Tom Hoefert put a new spin on things when I talked to him in front of the Humm Dinger last week. “We used to brag to the neighbors that we got more rain than they did,” he said. “Now we say, I only got twenty hundreds last night, what’d you get?”

All things eventually come to an end… and it’s likely that later this summer we’ll ask ourselves, “Why couldn’t we have saved a little of that June rain for later?”

Weather trivia:

The True Dakotan has printed regular weekly weather information from dedicated local folks for 35 years. They are:

1. Evelyn Weaver

2. Stanley Zak

3. Verla Barber

4. Fred Marken

5. Don L. Wenzel

6. Lloyd Kraft