Remember a couple of months ago when it was raining about every other day? Seems like ancient history.
Weather nuts like me will point out we're in the longest dry spell in at least two years. I can't remember any serious rain around here since the 1st of August.
2018 was the wettest year on record in Kentucky. In early summer, it looked like 2019 could set new records. As a guy who organized outdoor concerts every Thursday from late May into August, I can attest. It was wet seven of ten Thursdays.
But we're not hearing much of that talk anymore.
In June, you'd have been hard pressed to get a fire started in the woods. This week, Pike Judge Executive Ray Jones instituted a total outdoor burning ban. If you try to burn off that garden, it's liable to take the double wide with it.
Or your neighbor's mansion.
The most shared photos on Facebook these days are temperature readings breaking 100 degrees. That wouldn't be that remarkable in July or August, but mid September surely is. We're normally barely breaking 80 about now.
The good news is the trees are starting to show their fall colors in the hills around Elkhorn. The bad news is it's because the ground is so dry the trees are dying. And there's no chances of rain through the weekend with only 20% probability of isolated showers on Monday and Tuesday.
This is putting a serious damper on my kayaking. The Russell Fork is the lowest it's been in two full years. You could walk across the river in places now and not get the top of your feet wet. Local kayakers haven't been in the gorge in well over a month and, believe me, we'll tackle it at ridiculously low levels.
Speaking of kayakers, the two people identified as kayakers who stumbled into the Breaks canyon last week were anything but. Buying a $150 recreational float at Rural King no more makes you a kayaker than buying a carving knife at Wally World makes you a surgeon.
Luckily the river was so low the unimformed pair ditched their boats and swam for it. Personally, I might have tried the railroad tracks 50 feet up the hill but that would have required thought processes they obviously weren't familiar with.
If the river had had only average flow they likely wouldn't have made it to the first Class V drop alive. Luckily, angels watch over fools.
It happens nearly once a year. It starts with "Hey fellers, watch this..." and ends with every emergency rescue volunteer in the county showing up at Rat Hole. Usually, like this time, everything turns out fine except to give actual kayakers a bad name.
The truth is actual kayakers do things others think are crazy, but none of them are dumb enough to try to float a dry river bed. The real ones are wherever the water is. And that'll be here the first weekend of October, whether it rains between now and then or not.