Reporter-News photo by Nellie Doneva Farming equipment sits in a field on Iberis Road. There is a 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms today.

Summer heat parched West Texas until five days ago, when an upper level storm slowly moved through, dumping rain and lighting up the sky with violent thunderstorms.

Dry, brown ground has given way to wildflowers, mushrooms, green grass and weeds. The rains are also expected to help produce a great wheat crop.

There is a chance for more rain today, but the rest of the week is expected to be sunny and warm.

"The system that brought the rain is unusual for West Texas this time of year," said meteorologist Kimberly Hoeppner with the National Weather Service in San Angelo. "More often we have tropical systems like the remnants of Hurricane Erin in August 2007 bring in heavy August rains."

From Friday through Tuesday at 4:25 p.m., the system dumped 5.67 inches of rain in Abilene with 0.87 inches falling by Tuesday afternoon, although it was still raining at press time.

The Buffalo Gap Road fire station reported a five-day total of 6.76 inches of rain by Tuesday morning, but no afternoon report was available.

The system will move east out of the Big Country by this afternoon. Forecasts call for partly cloudy skies and sun with a high of 84 degrees today.

By Friday, Abilene will be back to sunny skies and a high temperature of 93 degrees.

With all the rain, mosquitoes are finding numerous places to breed.

"Because up until Friday it has been so dry we haven't found a need to spray for mosquitoes. We will continue trapping for mosquitoes and are ready to spray problem areas, especially if residents call to report problems," said Community Enhancement Division Manager Priscilla Rayford Templeton. "We really want people to get proactive about standing water. The city can get to some problem spots, but if someone has a pan or old tire holding water, they need to turn them over, or somehow get rid of the places where mosquitoes will breed."

Templeton said that year before last, city crews were continually spraying for mosquitoes, but it was a very wet summer.

Weeds and overgrown areas can grow quickly after a good period of rain, and after a brief time can become a fire hazard.

Templeton asked residents who know of areas that need mowing to alert her office, which will contact the property owners and if they do not mow, a city contract crew will do so.

For mosquito spraying, call the Community Enhancement division at (325) 437-4590. If an area needs mowing, call (325) 676-6241.

Crops

Rain didn't come soon enough to save the area cotton crop, said Vernon AgriLife Extension agronomist Todd Baughman, "but it's really going to help the wheat production."

Baughman and many other agribusiness experts attended the Big Country Wheat Conference on Tuesday at the Taylor County Expo Center. Many happy wheat growers attended in anticipation of the long, drenching rains of the past five days ushering in an extremely successful winter wheat season.

"The slow rainfall saturated the ground, causing good, deep soil moisture," said agriculture and natural resources county extension agent Robert Pritz. "The 2008-2009 wheat crop is off to a good start."