The last 48 hours have had me feeling like Andy in The Shawshank Redemption…
Indiana was (perhaps still is?) in drought conditions, with the Lake Maxinkuckee area in Moderate Drought Conditions.
It’s crispy. Leaves on trees and shrubs began drying and dying before having chance to turn color. Corn and bean harvest is already underway in some areas, and at least one corn field caught on fire near Plymouth last weekend. Marshall County was under a complete Burn Ban.
Fortunately, we received at least 1/2 inch of rain last night, with nearly an inch during the slow drip on Sunday.
Before the rain, I drove my Chevy to the (Kline) levee to check if it was dry.
The flow was low, but it was still quite damp. I was also treated with a fly-over of several Sandhill Cranes, who were probably making their way south for the winter. (If you haven’t had a chance to see them congregate at Jasper-Pulaski, you must!).
The Kline levee is located on DNR property and is open to the public. It’s a nice place for a quick walk in nature. Though you’ll need muck boots and long pants, as there are not formal, maintained trails.
It’s normal in our region for lakes and wetlands to slowly dry up a bit during summers with average precipitation. After all, evapotranspiration is up, and rainfall is down. We are fortunate to be able to track these ups and downs with our USGS lake level gauge. The six inch dump of rain from Hurricane Beryl is clearly evidenced in the big spike in early July, raising Lake Maxinkuckee nearly one foot. The ensuing drought conditions have brought levels down below the pre-hurricane level, with a tiny bump up at the end of the graph for the last 48 hours of rain.
It would be nice to get truly local, real-time data on the rainfall amounts, wouldn’t it?
Coming soon! Well, soon-ish…
Debbie, our Emeritus President, first wrote about this project in the spring (read here). While we are out of time to launch the buoy this season, we have taken receipt of our gear and will be soon learning all the ins and outs of this unit, preparing for a big splash in spring of 2025!
Hi, I’m Adam Thada, President of the Lake Maxinkuckee Environmental Fund in Culver, IN. I studied Biology (BS) at Indiana Wesleyan University and Environmental Science (MSci) at Taylor University. The last decade or so has found me in Northern Indiana, working in sustainability, environmental education, and ecological restoration.
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