• Sonny Long •
• Originally published January 20, 2009 at 5:17 p.m., updated January 20, 2009 at 5:17 p.m.

So has it always been like this: non-average? Each year, I sit and write my reflections for the year, and each year we do not have an average anything. I guess there is no such thing as an average year, you just go from extreme to extreme to get the average?

In one of my favorite coffee table books "Helicopter Cowboy" the preface is by the Texas author Elmer Kelton fittingly notable work: "The Time it Never Rained."

Kelton wrote "The drought of 1950 and 1951 was devastating, and it resulted in terrific debt for everyone. Then the drought of 1953 compiled that debt, and finally, the 1955 drought caused many farmers and ranchers to give up and move into other professions. Weather records of the following 47 years indicate the rainfall varied. The normal amount of rain fell during many years, but it often fell in one or two big rains during the 12-month period."

Since 2001, my records would concur with that pattern: Conditions were mixed for farmers and ranchers alike in 2001. Both saw good times and bad. This year was one of the driest/wettest years in recorded history for 2002; 2003 - What started out as being so wet and farmers not being able to get into the field to plant, turned dry for two months; 2004 - The first time in recorded history it had snowed on Christmas and the first measurable snow since 1985; 2005 will go down in history as a very difficult year for agriculture; I'm would suspect that when people look back over the rainfall totals for 2006 in years to come it won't stand out as a being a drought year, even though it might rank in the Top 5 worst droughts in recorded history; 2007 - How do you go from 49.76 inches and 178 percent above normal in September to only adding 2.08 inches or 26 percent of normal. I guess just like we did.

In 2008, the city of Goliad recorded 21.99 inches of rain. This is our 10th driest year since 1913. It was our driest year since 1996, which recorded 21.15 inches, only .84 tenths of an inch drier than last year. We ended the year 61 percent of normal rainfall, and the only month above average in rainfall was January, which means we spent the entire year with below normal rainfall. Our flood to drought variances did not occur for once, we just remained dry. And you can play with numbers as much as you want, but the fact remains we were dry in 2008 and the last quarter of 2007.

What will 2009 hold? There are many ways and traditions to predict the weather, the Farmer's Almanac or the moon for instance. Or, the German 12 days which records the events of the first 12 days of the year. I believe this is also called cavanulas. I know from my Polish ancestry you can cut an onion right before you leave for Midnight Mass.

After mass you check which onion contains the most water, as to determine which months will be wet. You may have or know of other methods. It is a lot of fun, and many times correct. I am hoping the Polish are wrong this year, though. Looking back at the first 12 days in 2008, the only day it rained in Goliad was on Jan. 7 and July was our wettest month of the year.

Brian Yanta is the Goliad County Extension agent.

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