Rain slows the pace at State Fair of Texas

by WENDY CORONA

WFAA

Posted on September 29, 2012 at 6:46 PM

Updated yesterday at 10:56 PM

DALLAS ? The show must go on... but sometimes, it just can't.

Saturday's steady rain curtailed some scheduled events at the State Fair of Texas. The latest washout was the featured evening concert with Kevin Costner and Modern West.

Also rained out were the first two days of parades, the grand opening day ceremony, Marine Corps concerts, and one celebration that was six decades in the making ? a 60th birthday bash for State Fair icon Big Tex.

Plans to toast Big Tex at 1 p.m. Sunday will go on, and will be moved indoors if necessary. Fingers are crossed that the first parade of the Fair can finally happen on Day 3.

It's been bad so far, but it was worse in 1984. "There was one year where we had probably 15 days of rain out of the whole Fair," said State Fair spokeswoman Sue Gooding. "It was the wettest, but even then people were here."

Twenty-eight years later, there?s still lots of rain... and still people are at the fair.

Marlo and Sheree Hollie said the fair is a tradition that a little wet weather can't stop.

"We wait on it all year, so we make sure as soon as it opens we come and enjoy," Marlo said.

And for the Holtzclaws from San Angelo, everything went just as planned.

"It's our 17th anniversary, and we had this planned for our anniversary, so here we are," Linda Holtzclaw said.

Their rain hats, however, were not planned. Those were purchased at the Fair.

"This is the best kind of rain that we like to see here in North Texas: A slow, steady rain," said WFAA meteorologist Steve McCauley.

He said showers will linger in Sunday's forecast, but not nearly as heavy or as widespread.

As of 6 p.m. Saturday, rain totals ranged from 2.23 inches in Arlington to 1.7 inches in Mesquite to 1.05 inches at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.

Abilene recorded a staggering 6.33 inches of precipitation, with 4.01 inches in Palestine and 3.02 inches in Waco.

E-mail wcorona@wfaa.com

Source: http://www.wfaa.com/news/local/Rain-brings-delays-cancellations-to-North-Texas-events-171946991.html

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