Will it ever rain?

The trees all around us look so dry. The grass is brown. Leaves are starting to fall, its hot and there isn't a cloud - anywhere - in the state.

The trees are suffering. I'm starting to worry. When you live in the woods with dry, suffering trees all around you... you worry. Not just about tree survival. You worry about fire.

We're having the worst drought in decades after having the wettest winter in, well, decades. It's hotter than Hades most days, and we lost our fruit crop to a late, long freeze. Our winter wheat as well.

It hasn't been a good year for weather here in Indiana, especially the southern half of the state.

From the Bloomington Herald Times:

About 40 percent of the state is in a “D2” stage of severe drought, National Weather Service meteorologist Logan Johnson said. That determination is made by the weather service along with other agencies such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture and fire and weather agencies, he said. They’re looking at things such as the amount of rain, the status of deep groundwater wells and soil moisture for the weekly rating.

Why isn’t it raining? Persistent upper level high pressure systems are keeping away the cold fronts that are necessary for rain. That makes precipitation spotty, Johnson said. For example, they’ve had reports of rain in the northern half of a county but none in the southern.

“The ridge is just so strong it keeps that weather pattern,” he said. “And Indiana drought years typically come with this same weather pattern.”

Time to do the rain dance again. In earnest.

eRain Dance (This better work)

Once again a massive line of storms full of precipitation has passed just to the North of us, leaving our poor gasping forests parched; the bushes brown and brittle, the soil dry as powder. The birds are gone -- probably to the lake. I leave water out for the squirrels. The daytime temperatures have been between 95-100 degrees. We haven't had a drop of rain here at our house in a month.

I see another line of rainstorms approaching from Illinois, but I already know the pattern: North by Northeast, up through Indy and towards the Great Lakes.

We're parched. We need rain.

The time has come to consult with the experts...

The rain dance is still an important part of Native American consciousness, just as we are concerned with the amount of rainfall even in the modern world.

In late August, when it is quite dry, especially in the Southwestern United States, Native American tribes used to do a rain dance. Many Native Americans still perform the ritual today, and it can be seen on several reservations in the United States. Men and women gathered together for a rain dance and wore special headdresses and clothing. The jewels used in the clothing, such as turquoise, had special significance, as well as the patterns on the clothing and the use of goat hair in the headdresses. These special clothes were worn every year for the rain dance, and usually were stored the entire year for this purpose.

Zuni Rain Dance

Last Night the Rain Spoke To Me
By Mary Oliver

Last night
the rain
spoke to me
slowly, saying,
what joy
to come falling
out of the brisk cloud,
to be happy again
in a new way
on the earth!
That’s what it said
as it dropped,
smelling of iron,
and vanished
like a dream of the ocean
into the branches
and the grass below.
Then it was over.
The sky cleared.
I was standing
under a tree.
The tree was a tree
with happy leaves,
and I was myself,
and there were stars in the sky
that were also themselves
at the moment
at which moment
my right hand
was holding my left hand
which was holding the tree
which was filled with stars
and the soft rain –
imagine! imagine!
the long and wondrous journeys
still to be ours.

Very Quiet Native American Rain Dance

(But notice the clouds above! It's working!)

Rain Dance (Art Video with actual rain)


American Indian Flute - Rain Dance


African Rain Song

Rain Song
Imvula, Imvula (eem-voo'-lah)
Chapha, chapha, chapha (c=click sound with tongue in back of Chapha,
chapha, chapha front teeth,like the sound of exasperation) (cah'-pah)
Imanz'impahla yam'
Imanz'impahla yam' (ee-mahn'zeem pah'hla yahm)
Gqum, Gqum, Liyaduduma (q=click made when pulling tongue down Gqum, gqum, liyaduduma from roof of mouth) (gqoom lee-yah doo'-mah)
Imanz'impahla yam'
Imanz'impahla yam'

note: this is a very old and traditional rain song. The translation goes like this:

"It's raining, it's raining
Chapha, chapha, chapha
Chapha, chapha, chapha (sound of the rain falling)
My clothes are getting wet,
My clothes are getting wet.
Gqum, Gqum (sound of the thunder)
There's the thunder!
Gqum, gqum,
There's the thunder!
My clothes are getting wet,
My clothes are getting wet!"

Modern Rain Song

(Can be played in conjunction with Very Quiet American Indian Rain Dance above)



I'm dancing my feet off here in Southern Indiana... come on rain!

...

P.S. If I get desperate enough, I'm going to have to post THIS:

Proof that I will go to any lengths for rain

(Because yes -- you can find literally anything on YouTube.)