By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
Cheyenne Bottoms is a few steps closer to its wetland reputation. Several inches of rain fell throughout central Kansas on Aug. 9, including 3.25 inches at the Bottoms itself. Wildlife Manager Jason Wagner said the Bottoms was still seeing some benefit of that precipitation Monday morning.
"We're still getting pretty good water from the Walnut," he said. "The water we're getting in now is from Rush and Ness counties. I think it's about crested now so it's going to start tapering off from now on. There's still water coming in from the (Arkansas River) that we're brining in as well."
Wagner called last Wednesday's rains the most beneficial to the Bottoms by far this season. Five-plus inches of water fell southwest of Hoisington, and more than three inches were reported two miles east of Ellinwood. Reports around Great Bend hovered around 2.8 inches. That could be it for a while as no rain is expected for at least 10 days, and temperatures will climb back past the century mark this weekend.
"When it gets hot like that, we'll lose half-inch to an inch of water a day," Wagner said. "What we really needed was that rain we were supposed to get Saturday night that was supposed to be pretty heavy rains. We really needed that to happen or an inch of two of rain this week to keep the water coming in. Everything right now is really primed."
According to the Kansas Drought Monitor, virtually all of Barton County remained in an "extreme" drought condition prior to the Aug. 9 rains. The southwest corner of Russell County was still listed in the worst category of "exceptional" drought.