In article . net,
jo4hn wrote:
Anybody know how long a cubit is? Been raining cats and dogs here for
two days now. I know 'cause I just stepped into a poodle (old joke
alert).

In Val-speak, that's been described as "grody, to the _Manx_!"

Forecasts are for 10-15 inches of rain topped off by a couple
inches of snow tonight here in the mountains. We are OK here on the top
but folks lower down in the canyons and on the alluvium have a major
problem. Twitch.


31 years ago, the end of June, west-central Iowa got 28" of rain in less
than 24 hours. And something like 16" more the next day.

The Racoon River -- which under normal circumstances was suited for
canoeing, but not big/deep enough for a ski-boat -- was making like the
Mississippi. I spent nearly 72 hours non-stop on sand-bag detail, helping
build levee more than 1-1/2 _miles_ away from the cut that the river normally
ran in part of the bottom of. (It was spread about that far on the _other_
side of the cut, too!) The crest was something like 48-1/2 _feet_ above
normal.

Then there was the Spring of 1967. We had rain, _every_day_, for THIRTY-NINE
CONSECUTIVE DAYS. When the 'streak' was into its 5th week, 'cubits' and
related construction was a _frequent_ subject of conversation. By the *sixth*
week, there was near-daily discussion in the local newspaper, and on the TV
News. On 'day 40', the weather (or lack thereof _was_ the lead story.

Funny part was that there wasn't any flooding associated with that spell of
weather. Was a miserable time for us school-kids -- and, of course, stressful
on the parents of school-age children. Lots of days started out merely
'partly cloudy', with the overcast building in late-morning, and a miserable,
_drizzly_ rain starting somewhere around 2:00-2:30 in the afternoon. There
we were, trapped in the classrooms, looking out at that nice sun-shine all
morning, and watching things degrade to 'yucky' by the time school got out.
light rain _all_ week-end, too.