Flash Flood in 17 Draw, August 31, 2006
In the old West Texas joke, a visitor asks the old cowboy, “How much rain do you get a year?” To which the old boy replies, “Only 11 inches, but you ought to be here on the day it comes!”
These cloudbursts and the runoff they produce can create severe erosion in deserts which have lost plant cover.
Here is the same spot in the summer without rain. Note the gobblers. Turkey and quail are nesting in this draw. What do you guess will happen to the nests if it rains? If the coyotes don’t get the hen and her eggs, the rain will. If there is no rain it will be too dry for the eggs to hatch or the chicks to find bugs. This is a tough job.