When the clouds rolled in over the weekend and dropped almost 5 inches of rain on Southeast Missouri, plenty of people were happy to see the precipitation.

Gardeners and farmers were delighted in the rainfall, hoping that the water would saturate their dry, thirsty plants. And while the rain gave Jesse Hall a break, he also knew it meant longer work days for him.

Hall, owner of Hall Lawn Care Service, took Tuesday off from his regularly scheduled job of mowing and trimming lawns. "It's a day off, but I'm enjoying it," he said.

The rainfall and soaked ground throws Hall off his regular routine. "Instead of just eight-hour days it might be that we'll work 14" later in the week to catch up, he said.

Heavy rains also means more work for Bob Reeves, weather forecaster at KFVS-12. He kept up-to-date Tuesday on flash flood watches and warnings issued by the National Weather Service.

"We're already on the backside of the circulation and when another cold front comes through, we should have a change to considerably dryer and cooler weather," he said.

Reeves said the rain should end today, with some areas continuing to get patches of precipitation. Temperatures should be in the upper 70s and lower 80s by week's end.

"It will feel more like fall," he said.

The reason that it seemed like the rain was just hanging over Southeast Missouri was that the fronts were all lined up together so that as the remnants of Tropical Storm Grace moved through the area, another front was right behind it with more precipitation.

"It's seemed constant with just a few breaks," Reeves said. "It all combined to keep periods of rain over us."

The rain was desperately needed for the region since August had been fairly dry up until Friday. "Many farmers had told me that they certainly needed the rain for their late beans and it should be help for some fields of corn," Reeves said.

ljohnston@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 126