Drought and flash flood warning in the same day ---- must be Indiana weather

What is it about weather that ignites conversation no matter what the forecast?

We say that when we don't know what to talk about with another person or we run out of things to say, we can always talk about the weather.

Is the weather important in your conversations?

You can brag about your weather or complain about it.

Regardless of the season, weather is the one subject that most people have in common.

Speaking of Indiana's quirky weather, we have spring-like days in January and wintry weekends in October.

April is capable of providing a sampling of all four seasons in a single 24-hour period.

What is it they say about the Indiana weather? "If you don't like it, just wait, it will change."

I personally like the four seasons. I just prefer for them to be offered up in the proper time of the year.

By contrast, my youngster daughter lives in southern California, near Laguna Beach, where being a weather forecaster has to be the easiest job in America.

Most days it's sunny, breezy with a high in the low to mid-80s.

Rain is so rare that when I visited there in April and rain was in the forecast, rain was the lead news story on the morning TV shows. Motorists were reminded to please turn on their headlights and their windshield wipers. Dah?

Indiana and much of the Midwest is entrenched in a record-setting drought -- despite the welcome rainfall that the Greene County region had on Sunday.

Most of Indiana remains under a burn ban because of the extreme fire danger.

How ironic was it to be under a drought alert and have the National Weather Service issue a Flash Flood Warning for the area on Sunday afternoon and evening?

Again, welcome to Indiana weather.

Many people around the area ---- especially grain and livestock farmers ---- had been hoping for rain for weeks after a 10-day brutal stretch of weather where the temperatures climbed to desert-like conditions with eight or nine straight days of 100-degree-plus temps.

I talked to a gentleman at church Sunday who lives in the desert region of southern California not far from the Nevada border.

He says it's hot there ... usually about 100 during the daytime, but at night it cools to the mid-50s.

During the past two weeks our night time temps have hardly made it out of the 70s and sometimes 80s.

So, it's actually been warmer here in our region than in the desert.

However, the good news is WTWO-TV meteorologist Anne Elise Parks reported Monday that this week "we say good-bye to the heat wave. Much cooler temperatures are in store as we kick off your work week. Seasonable 80s for daytime highs will be the trend; that's around 20 lower than what we were dealing with last week."

The bad news in her forecast is, "Any rain chances leave us today (Monday) as the front continues moving south."

The next chance of any significant rain will be the weekend.

I don't believe I ever remember a hotter couple of weeks than we've just experienced. People who keep tabs of weather records and readings say it's been decades since southern Indiana has had a prolonged spell of hot, triple-digit temperatures and a dry spell like this.

Sunday's rainfall was widely varied depending where you live in the county.

Where I reside, south of Newberry, we probably had about an inch or so of rainfall, very little heavy wind and no hail.

A brief survey of my Facebook collection friends from throughout the county showed Bloomfield was drenched with 2.5 inches to about 5.25 inches of rain and some hail.

The Worthington area had 2.5 inches to 3 inches.

Worthington resident Vern Spoor reported "This was our first rain since June 4, and that was only .02 of an inch. Today's rain was needed, but it is too late for the corn. It might help the soybeans a little."

Parts of Stafford Township had 3.5 inches of rain with some trees blown down.

There was about 1.25 inches in the Solsberry community and 2.5 inches near Owensburg.

Jim Meng said there was 1.5 inches in downtown Linton at 9 p.m. on Sunday and was still raining.

Greene County Treasurer Shelby K. Meurer, of Linton, may have had the best assessment of Sunday's rain. "It was not enough, but thank you Lord for what you gave us."

Nick is assistant editor for the Greene County Daily World. He can be reached by telephone at 847-4487 or 1-800-947-4487 or by e-mail at schneider.nick@gmail.com .