More than six inches of rain fall locally over 5 days

Monday, May 1, 2017

Getting more than a month's worth of rain over the last five days of April, the Greencastle area has been among the wettest locations in Indiana as April bid Hoosiers adieu.

While the Putnam County area saw only 2.77 inches of rain over the first 25 days of April -- normally one of the rainiest months of the year with an average total of 3.81 inches -- the last five days of the month produced more than six inches of rain.

According to Diana Foust, the local official weather observer for the National Weather Service, the Greencastle area logged 6.19 inches of rainfall from April 26-30.

Individually the daily totals were .98 inches last Wednesday during the wind and hail storm; just .02 inches on Thursday; 2.09 inches on Friday when 1.25 inches reportedly fell in 45 minutes; another 1.98 inches on Saturday, followed by 1.12 inches of rain on Sunday.

So in other words, almost twice the average April rainfall total fell in just five days.

That ballooned the local total to 8.96 inches for April 2017.

While the old adage claims that April showers should bring about May flowers, it also certainly has helped accelerate grass growing while spawning a bit of flooding around Putnam County.

Monday morning Putnam County Highway Supervisor Mike Ricketts reported that most of the flooding has subsided.

"With Big Walnut Creek receding, about the only flooded roads we have are down in the southern part of the county around Mill Creek," Ricketts said. "Raccoon Creek really behaved well this weekend and Big Walnut only came out in four normal spots -- Crowe's, Wildwood, Oakalla and Reelsville --- but all the major washouts should be fixed today or tomorrow.

"With the amount of rain we endured this weekend, I say we fared pretty well," Ricketts added.

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