The old saying about it being hotter than a firecracker on the Fourth of July went straight out the window for the July 4 weekend of 2024.

Instead of hot and dry, over two inches of rain was recorded in Purcell and in the surrounding area.

On July 4, .25” of an inch was recorded. Another .2” fell on July 5, followed by a deluge Sunday morning of July 7 when 1.65” of rain was recorded in Purcell, bringing the total for the weekend to 2.10”.

Washington recorded 2.20” and Byars 2.99”, according to the Oklahoma Mesonet.

The 2.10” that fell in Purcell over the holiday weekend hiked the year-to-date total here to 25.50” compared to 16.60” that has been recorded at Will Rogers World Airport. The normal year-to-date total here is 19.53”.

Last week Purcell’s City Government requested water customers cut out watering yards and filling swimming pools. A precautionary boil water order was requested by the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality.

The water ban and precautionary boil order were both canceled Monday with water reserves getting back to normal levels.

City officials said leaks in the main water lines, possibly exacerbated by a series of earthquakes, caused outages and low water pressure for customers outside the city limits.

The low pressure that plagued some customers has been rectified, city officials confirm with water levels at normal levels in city water towers.

City crews walked mile after mile of water lines searching for leaks over the holiday, officials confirmed.

Some water customers were without water service for several days.

Angie Steele told The Register Monday evening was a trickle.

On Tuesday morning she  lost all water service and was out completely through Friday morning around 10:30 a.m. when a trickle returned.

Steele said it was back to normal Saturday morning. 

“I had to close my day-care and stop all farm operations. It was absolutely miserable working to keep all the livestock alive and toilets running with a bucket,” she said.

Another county town with water issues is Washington. Their monthly meeting of the Washington Board of Trustees has been rescheduled for Thursday at 6 p.m.

Goldsby, Newcastle and Blanchard are also facing water issues.