Day of rain relieves many area farmers

By KIM FUNDINGSLAND, Staff Writer, kfundingsland@minotdailynews.com

Wednesday's all-day rainfall arrived at nearly the precise time to help replenish soil moisture throughout the northwest portion of the state. At mid-May, dry conditions had farmers and ranchers fearing the worst and making plans for a dry summer. Fortunately, the rain that fell Wednesday was the soaker needed to provide a boost to producers who had been closely monitoring marginal soil moisture content. "I can tell you that in our trade area, Mohall got about 3 inches and Bowbells about 2," said Brad Haugeberg, Sunprairie Grain, Minot. "This crop is set up now. We can get into July quite a ways before we'll be begging for rain again. There's a reserve there, not much standing water because the ground took it. It came at a nice rate. It'll finish getting everything up and in absolutely good shape." Under normal conditions, such a heavy rainfall throughout the Des Lacs and Souris River basins could be expected to influence river flows. As of Thursday morning it appeared that most of the rain had soaked into dry soil and very little was reaching either of the rivers. The lack of runoff was another indicator of just how dry conditions actually were throughout much of northwest and north-central North Dakota. "It won't impact a whole lot of things on the refuge but it will keep us from drying out completely," said Dan Severson, Des Lacs National Wildlife Refuge. "There won't be much runoff but I'd expect a little bit." The rain gauge at Des Lacs NWR contained 1.37 inches of water following Wednesday's downpour. Severson said a gauge located near the Canadian border registered 1.52 inches. "It was a pretty good rain. I haven't seen it rain like that in a few years," added Severson. Severson planned to check late Thursday to see if there was any runoff in drainages leading into the refuge where the holding pools remain at very low levels. At the Upper Souris National Wildlife Refuge, 2.07 inches was in the rain gauge. There was 1.5 inches in the gauge at the headquarters of the J. Clark Salyer NWR near Upham. "The best rain we've had all spring. A general soaker, that's for sure," said Gary Erickson, J. Clark Salyer NWR. "It sure added to the soil moisture. This will go a long ways to stretch out the summer." The Des Lacs River gauge at Foxholm had risen less than 6 inches by Thursday morning and showed an increase from 2 cubic feet per second to 6 cfs. Likewise, the Souris River gauge above Minot showed an increase of perhaps a half-foot and a change in flow from 8 cfs Wednesday morning to 20 cfs Thursday morning. The elevation of Lake Darling remained virutally unchanged following Wednesday's rainfall at 1,590.48 feet, about 7 feet lower than its normal summer operating level. Wednesday's total in Minot was listed as 1.88 inches by the National Weather Service. The deluge brought Minot's total rainfall for the year to 6.8 inches, just a half-inch less than normal for this time of year and about 3.5 inches less than a year ago. Minot received the majority of its 2007 rainfall by the end of June, with very little falling for the remainder of the year.