Volume 18 , Issue 24

May 1935 - Extra! Extra! Rain Falls In Dust Bowl

The Iola Register, Iola, Kansas, dated 2 May 1935, Thursday, page 1, reported: "Extra! Extra! Rain Falls In Dust Bowl," with the largest precipitation in three years in Baca County, Colorado of a total .3 inches of rain falling on the dust bowl.

Found on Newspapers.com

Springfield, Colorado, May 2 (1935) -- It rained on that day in the little dust bowl of the southwest!

People tumbled from beds before dawn to see the big drops splash in the street. Small children, who never had seen such a downpour before, were frightened as it beat loudly on roofs.

Three tenths of an inch fell, the first moisture in Baca county since January and the greatest amount in three years. It soaked in almost as fast as it fell but that morning there were still a few puddles where children played happily. Farmers said the moisture hardly was enough to benefit them but everybody agreed it would quiet the dust storms at least for a few days.

The Democrat Herald, Baca county weekly newspaper, put out an extra edition on that day "all about the storm." The weatherman, Will Spurges, slept through the rain. "I heard some pattering not he window but thought it just another dust storm swirling in," he said.

The town's nightwatchman, wearing a rain coat but having forgotten his dust mask awakened Spurges about dawn and the weather observer went to his office to read the long-waited precipitation record.

Excitement prevailed at Lamar, Colorado, 50 miles north of Springfield at the upper edge of the dust bowl, when the storm struck the night before. Town folk ran into he street to feel the rain patter down on their heads and shoulders. The storm was spotted and apparently covered only a small portion of the dust bowl of western Kansas, southeastern Colorado and the Oklahoma and Texas panhandles. Part of the dust area in New Mexico also received rain or snow.

Western Baca county was still "dry as a bone" this morning, reports showed. This included Prairie Center where the residents had asked the nation to join with hem in a prayer service for rain next Sunday.

Most of the east section of the county had moisture and there were local showers eastward to beyond Syracuse, Kansas. The rain also extended to the parched Oklahoma panhandle and private reports received here said there was a "good storm" as far south as Boise City, Oklahoma.

The storm in Springfield, Colorado and at Lamar lasted about four hours, a fine, soaking fall of moisture. Skies were clear that morning and there was no sign of the dreaded dust that blew in there two days ago in the worst "duster" to strike that area.

Baca County, Colorado cheered as biggest rain since 1932 came during the night. theParched soil absorbed moisture as fast as it fell - Storm excited the residents who went out into the streets to feel the rain drops on their bodies.
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