The flow of water in Shoal Creek, the primary source of Joplin’s drinking water, had been getting weaker with each passing day. That changed Monday morning after weekend rains brought some relief to the area.

But the relief was not strong enough to bring a uniform end to the burn bans that are in place across the region. The hope is that the arrival of Isaac — a tropical storm that is expected to intensify into a hurricane — on the Gulf Coast later this week will change that. The storm could bring steady rains to the area this weekend.

And for some, it won’t be enough to bring life to barren pumpkin patches or other seasonal enterprises.



WATER SUPPLY

“Shoal Creek came up a little this morning (Monday),” said Christie Barnhart, spokeswoman for Missouri American Water Co., which provides water to more than 50,000 customers in the Joplin market. “It was flowing at 60 to 61 cubic feet per second this morning. It was down to 36 cubic feet per second on Friday. That’s seriously low.”

The flow of water in Shoal Creek was of critical concern last week to the company and the city of Joplin. Company officials have been meeting regularly with city leaders on Mondays, and sometimes every other day, to keep them briefed on conditions in the creek and the local demand for water. The concern was whether more stringent regulations with regard to water usage were needed.

“If we don’t get anything else for a week or two, we’ll be back to a critical water situation. For now, we are holding our own,” Barnhart said. “Demand has dropped off a bit because of cooler temperatures. Demand also goes down when kids return to school.”

The company in mid-July installed a new wooden gate system atop the concrete dam at Grand Falls. The gates increase the depth of the impoundment behind the dam by 2 feet, adding about 68 million gallons of water to the reservoir. That was done when the water flow in Shoal Creek fell to 48 cubic feet per second, according to the U.S. Geological Survey monitoring station south of Joplin. Normal flow this time of year is around 400 cubic feet per second.

Megan Terry, a hydrologist with the National Weather Service forecast office in Springfield, said: “This rain will have a short-term impact. It could green things up a bit. But we could use a lot more to make up for the shortfall in just the last two months or so — that’s 4 to 6 inches in the Joplin area.”

Some communities north of Joplin fared much better than Joplin did over the weekend. When a 72-hour period ended at 7 a.m. Monday, Girard, Kan., had logged 3.59 inches of rain. Lamar got 3.35 inches. Carl Junction got to 2.54 inches. Carthage received 2.14 inches.

The three-day total for Joplin’s recording station at the Joplin Regional Airport was 1.24 inches.

“Spring River has responded to that rain,” Terry said. “It’s up a foot at Carthage and almost half a foot at Waco.”



BURN BANS

Despite the rain, bans on outdoor burning remain in effect in Joplin and Newton County.

The Cherokee County (Kan.) Commission on Monday voted to lift a burn ban there. Commissioners said the action was taken on the advice of county emergency preparedness director Jason Allison.

After consulting with fire officials across Newton County on Monday, Gary Roark, the county’s emergency preparedness director, said conditions, particularly in the eastern part of the county, are still too risky to permit outdoor burning.

Andy Nimmo, chief of the Redings Mill Fire Protection District, said: “I’m of a mixed opinion about it. An inch to 2 inches of rain is certainly not enough, but the grass has got a little greener. That’s what I look at.

“Hurricane Isaac could do wonders for us. A full weekend of a nice, easy rain for two or three days, that’s what we really need.”

He cautioned that lifting a burn ban is “not like dropping the green flag at Daytona. You have to pay attention to conditions, especially the wind, when you burn.”



PATCHES AND MAZES

Carol Renner said her family’s farm south of Joplin got 1.25 inches of rain over the weekend — “the most rain we’ve gotten in forever” — but it was too little, too late.

For the first time in 14 years, Renner Farms on Raccoon Road has no plans for its annual pumpkin patch and corn maze.

“It kind of wiped us out,” Renner said of the drought, one of the worst in decades.

“If it ever rained, we were going to plant (pumpkins), but it never did. We water out of our ponds, and they were going dry and consequently went dry.”

The farm usually is open on weekends for the public and during the week for schoolchildren and other groups. But this year, it will not open.

“We plan on returning next year,” Renner said.

Other businesses that depend on autumn traffic are planning to give it a go, but they’ve struggled to get to the point where they can open.

Pathways Corn Maze, near Oronogo, will open its 19-acre corn maze the last weekend of September. The maze is shaped like a football field, with mascots reflecting area football teams in the four corners of the maze.

“The corn did suffer,” said Andy Johnson, manager of Pathways. “It’s not as tall as what we would like, but it’s still usable.” He said the site received about 2 inches of rain over the weekend.

Pathways is keeping some of the traditional features, such as the hayride, and adding others. It plans to be open through the last weekend of October.

Richard Witt also will be opening his Pickin’ Patch Farm near Marionville the last weekend of September. The farm offers a one-acre corn maze, a pumpkin patch, hayrides and mums.

“I’ve got some pumpkins out there, and we’ve been irrigating. We’ve got a decent field of these,” Witt said, noting that he had to plant three times. Heat killed the first planting, and squash bugs got the second.

“I was irrigating the patch and so I had green leaves, and every squash bug in the area landed on mine,” he said.

The Corn Maizestet, near Verona, will open Sept. 22 and stay open through the last weekend of November.

“We have the benefit of being able to irrigate,” said Stephanie Doner. “Normally, it (corn) is about 15 feet tall. It’s not that tall (this year), but it’s bright green and pretty.”

The corn maze is a fundraiser for the Grip Boys Home. The operation this year plans to honor two towns that were hit by tornadoes — Joplin and Branson.

The maze will feature a tornado, clouds, lightning, Joplin and Branson, and a message, “Standing Strong.”

Meanwhile, this summer’s heat and dryness caused the apple crop to drop from the trees.

“We don’t pick anything off the ground,” said David Murphy, with Murphy’s Orchard on Highway 60 at Marionville. “Though our crop is down 60 to 65 percent, we still have cider and apples. We have supplemented with apples grown along the Missouri River.”

Murphy said his 32-year-old business had good crops of strawberries, peaches, grapes and blackberries.

“Our peaches will last another 10 days or so,” he said. “The tomatoes were so-so; the sun burnt a lot of them. Our cantaloupes are doing fine. They are irrigated.”



ANDY OSTMEYER, the Globe’s metro editor, contributed to this report.





Normal rainfall



THE JOPLIN AREA normally receives 46.47 inches of moisture annually. So far this year, it has received 21.93 inches. It normally would receive 30.45 inches by this date.