It’s been a fairly dry spring. The only signifiant rain that has fallen came pretty much all at once early in April. Over four days nearly four inches fell. During that time the Long Prairie River almost reached flood stage and then went back to normal. It seems that heavy rainfall over short periods, followed by flooding that quickly recedes, is becoming normal. In the last few years more and more rainfall has come to us in big storms of two, three, and four inches at a time. Rainfall like that hardly ever happened when we were kids. Of course kids aren’t going to believe old-timers when we say that it rains a lot harder than it used to. But, it turns out, there’s plenty of data to back up old timers claims about more intense rainfall. In fact, extreme precipitation has increased in nearly every region of the United States since the start of the 20th century, according to the Fourth National Climate Assessment. Those extreme precipitation events have increased more in Minnesota,