Thursday, October 16, 2008

Water-Logged Kansas And Some Weather History

The city of Wichita, Kansas broke their annual precipitation record on Wednesday with the latest total since January 1 sitting at just over 50.00 inches!!

50.49" to be exact.

Can you believe that? When I grew up in Arkansas I could, but after living so long in Colorado, it's hard to imagine.

Denver is essentially a high-desert as many of you know, and we are lucky if we get our annual average of just over 15" per year.

With every drop that falls (either rain or snow) between now and December 31, the new annual precipitation record for Wichita will just continue to be rewritten.


And here is a little weather history I saw on the wire from the Goodland, Kansas office of the National Weather Service.

I thought it was interesting.

IN 1860...THADDEUS HYATT...PRESIDENT OF THE NATIONAL KANSAS
COMMITTEE...WROTE A LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
IN AN EFFORT TO OBTAIN ASSISTANCE FOR THE SUFFERING INHABITANTS OF
KANSAS. HE DESCRIBED IN DETAIL THE NEEDS OF THE
SETTLERS...INCLUDING THEIR LACK OF ADEQUATE WINTER CLOTHING AND THE
SCARCITY OF FOOD. ACCORDING TO HIS PERSONAL OBSERVATIONS...HYATT
CONCLUDED THAT THE ONLY OPTIONS LEFT TO KANSAS SETTLERS WERE EXODUS
OR STARVATION. THE SETTLERS WERE SUFFERING FROM A PARTICULARLY
SEVERE DROUGHT IN 1860.

No comments:

Post a Comment