No, really, try and remember them.

According to WFLO, the area’s National Weather Cooperative Observer, September saw—barely visualized, one presumes—rain fall.

Less than one single inch of rain fell last month—.78 inches.

The September monthly average is 3.38 inches, according to the radio station’s records, which go back decades.

The September deficit of 2.6 inches still leaves us with a healthy precipitation surplus of 7.98 inches for the year but the look of that data can be deceiving because the look of the world around us is no deception.

We have gone from cutting grass two or three days a week to once in the past three weeks. Literally. That is how fragile the balance is. The wettest spring and summer in memory are now just that—a memory, with no visible reminders. If this turn of events can occur so quickly, continued dryness will have an impact we will not wish to comprehend.

The speed with which fields forget their green is disconcerting. Even more worrying is the effect we cannot see—below ground.

If creeks, streams and rivers are any indication, and, of course, they are, then every living creature and every living thing—the earth, itself—is united in a thirst for an October that makes up for September’s rainfall forgetfulness.

We pray this week’s rain is the first soggy step in jogging its memory and giving November something to think about.

—JKW—