Rain soaks Virginia Highway 8 near Stuart, Virginia.

When the historians tally up 2004 in the Southeast, it will be the summer, fall and winter of rain. Constant rainfall soaked the droughts of years past and left the region with a strong water table for the winter. If snowfall, as some predict, is heavier than normal this year, it will add to the runoff and damp ground in the spring.

If the rains come again, expect more flooding and more declarations of disaster areas. But, given the increasing inaccuracy of weather forecasting, no one can say for sure what the coming months will bring.

While the rain and uneven weather brought a fall with fewer colors than normal, the weat conditions create a beauty of their own.

As Glenn Yarborough sang, “Baby the rain must fall” and fall it did…and does…and will.