Today, 2 September will be the first day in many on the Creech Prairie, where the temperature does NOT reach 100 degrees. Yesterday we saw 102 with a feel-like temperature of 119.7! It's been like this since late July. But the forecasts indicate that yesterday may have been our last blast of heat. We'll be moving into a more seasonable mid-90s as we make our way to the 80s of late September. Today, for the first time, since August 22 (and before that, August 3), we had a bit of rain. We are hoping for more over the next few days. So, hot and dry. That's Texas in August. And the prairie has shown it. Wherever you walk, you hear the crunch of dry grass, and only a few lonely sunflowers serve as reminders of the wildflowers that sometimes blanket the field.
August and September are the growing seasons for the grasses of the tallgrass prairie. The big four––switchgrass, big bluestem, little bluestem, and yellow indiangrass––and the others––eastern gamagrass, sideoats grama, green spangle top, and lovegrass––are doing their best with the little moisture they've had to work with. Perhaps a wet September will meet their needs.
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| Yellow Indiangrass |
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| Wild Caraway |
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| Wild Caraway |
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| American Bird Grasshopper |
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| Little Bluestem |
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| Maximillian Sunflower |
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| Maximillian Sunflower |
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American Pokeweed
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Miniature Barrel Cactus |
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