If you lived in north Louisiana during the early Spring or south Louisiana during the late Summer you'd never believe that most of the state has been under drought conditions. It was during those times during 2016 parts of Louisiana were anything but dry.

In March portions of northern Louisiana saw record rainfall of 15 to 20 inches between March 7th and March 12th. This sent creeks, rivers, streams, coulees, and anything else that held water over its banks in some of the worst flooding residents had ever seen.

State Climatologist Dr. Barry Keim told the Louisiana Radio Network that it wasn't just north Louisiana that felt the brunt of the high water.

Most of this fell across northern parishes of Louisiana and that all of this water came down the Sabine River, which later flooded and shut down I-10 for four days.

Eventually, those rains abated and the rest of the Spring season was very dry. That was until August when it was south Louisiana's turn to feel the wrath of Mother Nature.

Louisiana set an all-time record for its two-day rainfall total with 31.39 inches in Watson.

13 people lost their lives in that rain event while 30,000 people had to be rescued and nearly 150,000 homes were damaged.

The came the irony of 2016. Once the rain stopped. It never seemed to fall again.

By late November, the U.S. Drought Monitor had over 99% of the state in drought with 73% in either severe or extreme drought.

According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, most of Louisiana is currently in an abnormally dry or moderate drought condition at this time.

If there was a bright spot in all of this, the Hurricane Season was very quiet for Louisiana and the Gulf of Mexico. At least we had that going for us.

 

More From 97.3 The Dawg