On November 4th, right before it was announced that we were in a Stage Four Drought Emergency, I took a trip to our water supply, Lake Purdy, to see what it was looking like.

November 4:

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A few days later, I went back to take sunset pictures.

November 11:

161111e-Lake-Purdy-Drought-SunsetFor more of the sunset pictures, click here.

For reference, this is what Lake Purdy looked like in June:

June 10:

160610-Lake-Purdy

It finally started raining a little over a week ago, and has rained what has felt like quite a bit since. The rain let up yesterday, so the kids and I fled the house for an Alabama History field trip today. While we were out, I decided to take them to Lake Purdy to see how things were looking.

It was fairly disheartening at first – it didn’t look that different.

December 7:

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November 4:

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The “stream” seemed slightly wider, but not by much.

December 7:

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November 4:

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But the kids found the whole scene amazing. We pretended to find giant dinosaur bones,

December 7:

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And they seriously enjoyed the challenge of “walking on the cracks:”

December 7:

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We came upon a couple of delightful gentlemen who showed the kids arrowheads and 1800s pottery they’d found, and tried to give them pointers on what to look for.

December 7:

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As we got further down the stream toward what is left of the lake, things definitely started to widen out. This looked much better than last time.

December 7:

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November 4:

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There were birds chirping and flying overhead,

December 7:

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December 7:

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and despite the giant expanses of dryness, life seemed to be coming back to the lake.

December 7:

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November 4:

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But the most exciting moment when we started back toward our car and noticed tiny, vibrant streams seeping up through the cracks.

December 7:

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November 4:

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The dry earth is slowly giving away, from the inside out.

4 thoughts on “Drought Updates from Lake Purdy.

  1. Thank you so much for posting these pictures and taking the time to go out there! I was very curious to find out what effect the recent rain had on the lake.

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