Rain, 2 months late

The rain returns, the cameras shift, and those impacted continue to salvage what they can from one of the worst agricultural disasters in recent memory.  

Despite 5 inches of rain in August the damage is done, farmers continue to round bale their
corn in the Green Creek area (8/11/12)

The numbers are still pouring in from the drought, and the lasting impacts and significance have yet to be realized.  For some, the drought was bearable.  For many, the drought was historic.  For our location, it was the worst drought since 1936 according to several local "old-timers."  Using a neighbor's precipitation reports, I was able to confirm that we received 1.58in from May 1st-August 1st, which is 15.84in below average for our area.

The photo above was taken in Green Creek.  A farmer, rather than spend the time and fuel to round bale his corn, opted to unleash his hungry cattle on this corn field. 

While the drought was devastating in our area, the only area I've found in Illinois (I never traveled south of Effingham) that compares, if not trumps the Green Creek area, is an area between Havana - San Jose, Illinois on Route 136.  Farmers in this area take advantage of the Illinois River to irrigate their crops, but the fields without irrigation were absolutely horrendous.





The above photo was taken along route 136.  While I snapped this photo on August 17th, I traveled this route every two weeks.  This corn field had completely dried out by late July.  In addition, even the soybeans in this area (that lack irrigation) are dead or dying.


For those of you who are not familiar with the phenology of soybeans, they can take drought. They're survivors. To see entire fields of soybeans die....wow. 


























I snapped this photo on August 17th of a farmer shelling his corn.  Due to the drought, harvest has begun a month early in this area east of Havana, IL.  During a normal year, the corn in this photo would be twice as tall (half way up the combine's cabin).

The growing season is nearly over, and the disaster will have less of an impact following the passage of summer.  I've taken over 500 photos of drought this summer.  I made a point to shoot whenever I had free time.  Not because it was "newsworthy," but because I knew that I may never see a drought of this magnitude again in my lifetime.  It was my attempt to document it.  I encourage you to get out and see these drought ridden areas.  You may not have another chance for another 20-30 years (we hope).

Rainshaft Wednesday

Near Royal, Illinois, I stumbled upon a simple paradise.  Gently rolling hills, an unheard of amount of old barns and abandoned homesteads, and an enormous wind farm under construction.  Absolutely libidinous landscape for those of you that enjoy the beauty of Illinois.   

A stationary boundary has camped over Illinois for a few days.  Though I was not expecting much yesterday, I was pleasantly surprised when I glanced at the radar around 4pm.  I had a 20 minute bike home from work and hit the road around 5:15pm.  

North of St. Joesph, Illinois, I stopped to take my first photo.  Set up my camera, turned it on, no SD card.  I can't say this is the first time I've committed such a blunder.  Fortunately,  I had an SD card in my camcorder.  Popped it in, flipped my camera back on, SD card is full.  Typical, I spend hours capturing images and video, but I don't bother to unload my stock.  I deleted a few of the undesirables, but combated my full memory card the entire trip.  As a result, I didn't snap a lot of "mediocre" shots.  I had to conserve my ammo. 
  

The photo above, was taken just east of the first photo.  I continued to follow this storm east through the unfinished wind farm for roughly 10 miles.  After I had these initial photos of the rainshaft, I attempted to capture a photo of the intense and frequent CG (cloud to ground) lightning.  I, of course, did not bring my shutter release cable and attempted to capture a shot while holding my camera on a mini tripod from inside my car.  

As I waited between impressive CG strikes, I couldn't help but ponder how my hobby increases the likelihood that I'll be struck by lightning.  For instance, in early June I was outside my car photographing an incoming storm, that was well off in the distance.  When a CG struck within a 150 yards of me, killing one of my father's cows.  So, I've been pretty uneasy about photographing outside of my car this summer.  While pondering my increased odds of an unceremonious death, I missed several great opportunities to photograph these incredible strikes.  I was able to capture the one above, east of the wind farm, in a stroke of luck. Without a shutter release cable, it's increasingly difficult to photograph these thunderstorm cuties.

At this time, I gave up my pursuit.  The thunderstorm moved east of me and combined with another t-storm to the south.  If you're photographing weather, always be aware of the sun's location.  When you're in-front/southeast of the storm, it illuminates features such as the rainshaft, wall cloud, and/or tornado.  In addition, I always like to move west of evening t-storms and use the sun for new perspectives.  Plus, you almost always observe a rainbow if there is minimal cloud cover on the other side of the storm.

The sun lit foreground and illuminated dark, blue sky.

Another shot with the sun to my back.  A smaller storm popped up behind the orignal storm and produced an impressive rainshaft.  It looks like a Pokemon creature moving across the sky, but interpretations may vary.

At this point, it was only a matter of time before a rainbow showed up.  This is the only shot I snapped of the rainbow, because not only was I out of memory space on my SD card, but it was incredibly peaceful to just observe the rainbow, lightning, rumbling thunder, and chirping crickets.  I sat on the hood of my car and just enjoyed the moment.  Even better, there were no cars or people in sight.

You may recognize this area, as this is where I captured my first photo of the day with an impressive rainshaft.  I decided to stop and photograph the sunset on the way home.


While you're here, I uploaded a photo album last week.  You'll find it under Photos and under Pre-2011.  In the album you'll find photos I captured long ago.  I'll continue to add to the album this weekend as I find/edit my ancient photographs.