For perhaps the first day in months, small talk in the county Wednesday wasn’t that “we need some rain.”
Severe thunderstorms in the early morning hours Wednesday dropped widely varying amounts of rain, although all parts of the county got some rain. The Community Collaborative Rain Hail and Snow (CoCoRaHS) station in Churdan reported 3.05 inches of rain. The National Weather Service reported more than 4 inches of rain in Jefferson, a resident in the Russell Park neighborhood in Jefferson had 5.1 inches in his rain gauge, and a rural resident north of Spring Lake reportedly had more than 7 inches in his rain gauge.
Many people who attend the Greene County Fair each year remember that the fair seems to have a way of bringing about storms. Fortunately, livestock wasn’t scheduled to arrive at the fair until later Wednesday morning, so exhibitors didn’t have to deal with animals in unfamiliar surroundings during a thunderstorm. However, the parking area at the fairgrounds is temporarily a lake. (Perhaps Lake Greenefair, or Hawn Lake in honor of longtime fair board secretary Doug Hawn.)
High winds caused damage, with downed limbs in some neighborhoods. At least one home in Jefferson was damaged when a large limb fell on it, and city crews spent the morning cleaning up fallen branches.
Corn was also damaged. The field pictured is on the east edge of Jefferson.
