Mitchell Oakley: Oh, what an interesting few months of weather

I am not much of a weather watcher. But the months of drought we’ve faced in Pitt County and neighboring Greene County did catch my attention. Not very much rain fell for several months.

In Pitt County, rainfall from January to June was about 7.82 inches below the normal, according to The Daily Reflector, in a story on July 6. The story pointed out that Corey Davis, assistant state climatologist for the North Carolina State Climate Office, said that “North Carolina had a mostly wet winter, but that precipitation was largely front-loaded in December and early January.”

Not only did it get dry in the early months of the year, but the climate also began to get blazing hot as well. Early gardens didn’t fare very well nor did the farmers’ corn crops. I still can’t get the picture out of my mind seeing beautiful green corn stalks start tasselling, then the leaves begin to shrivel and twist from the lack of water. It’s like watching a human being dying from lack of water. Corn really needs water during the tasseling stage. If doesn’t get it, production is reduced.

Fortunately, rain in July has helped make up for the need. The precipitation provided a shot in arm for tobacco, soybean, peanut and cotton crops. Let’s just hope it hasn’t been too much rain that it would drown the crops.

Having been raised on the farm, my father always stayed attuned to the weather report. Me, not so much. I suppose I left it up to God and took each day as it came. As I got older, however, it dawned on me how important the weather reports were to my dad and other farmers.

Interestingly, my area did not get a barrage of rain in July. My rain gauge reported about 9.5 inches during the days leading up to, and a few days beyond Hurricane Debby’s visit to our area in August.

I’ve been intrigued by hurricanes since Hurricane Hazel in 1954. My great-grandfather passed away two days afterward, a memory that’s never left me. The pictures in my mind of fallen oak trees in my grandfather’s yard, a tree across our home’s back porch and my father and his brother working on repairing the porch on the day my great-grandfather died are all still vivid almost 70 years later. I would never have imagined even living this long in my youth. I thought Dad was old at 45. Imagine that!

I’m glad Debby helped settle the dust in my area. Mowing my yard is a lot better now without dry dust firing in my face. However, hurricanes are finicky. Each one is different. We never know which one we will get and it does make quite a bit of difference.

Debby was not one of the most powerful storms that’s ever been our way. We did get a good shot from it, and a lot of water that I believe we needed. Debby was different in that it had a long leading northeast quadrant. It was on our state long before the eye left South Carolina. That edge of the storm brewed several tornadoes.

As the bands rolled across our area, I watched the WITN radar. My home and others in a northwesterly path were stuck right in the middle of the bands. Although I could hear some thunder, we received very few rough winds and not too much of the rain. As I watched the radar, the tornado or tornadoes that struck in the Snow Hill and Wilson areas, all came from the band that was swirling south of my home.

However, on the final night of Debby, my home was smack dab in the path of one of the wind bands, probably because the storm began to turn more northward. On that evening I could feel the stronger winds shake my tin roof and the rains were a lot harder. Fortunately, we were blessed to be without a tornado, although one was reported in the band north of us. We had no damage and feel fortunate.

It’s been an interesting few months of weather, and it may not be over yet. We still have a couple of weeks left for some August surprises. We also must worry about creek flooding, although that doesn’t appear to be as big a factor since Hurricane Ernesto did not invite himself our way.

What Ernesto did do, however, was cause wave-washing havoc along the Outer Banks of North Carolina causing a lot of beach erosion. One beach house near Rodanthe fell in the ocean and several others appear ready to do that anytime.

Say a prayer for our friends who were negatively impacted by the tornadoes in our state and those on our Outer Banks for their losses. Help a neighbor if you’re able.

By the way, hurricane season isn’t officially over until Nov. 30.