What Happened Here?

Much of the garden has a bit of a lean to it, but it's worst among these broad beans. The lettuce just looks sort of sprawled. Anything that wasn't mulched is mud-spattered, as much as a foot up the stems.

When we left this morning everything was dusty dry. As we came back from the city this afternoon, there were thunderheads off in the distance, and I looked at them longingly. We did some errands around town before actually coming home, and suddenly I noticed the puddles on the streets. Hurrah! We got rain!

As soon as we parked in our driveway, we jumped out and headed for the rain gauge. But Garth stopped at the rain barrel, and I could hear his disappointment as he announced, "Only about an eighth." He was a little off, I think. Actually the rain barrel had come up about what we would expect from two tenths.

But the rain gauge showed nearly four tenths.

And the lawn didn't seem squelchy at all. In places it still seemed dry.

Brian cleared up the mystery. He said all that rain came in one short burst, in wind-driven sheets. Some of it must have flowed over the edge of the eavestrough instead of into the barrel. I suppose a lot of it must have run right off the garden, too. Maybe two tenths is the best estimate after all.