Skipper said homeowners should consider taking precautions with trees close to their home. He said to look for leaves falling off limbs, bark peeling off the tree or large infestations of black ants. He said all of these are warning signs of disease. He also said it doesn’t hurt to have a professional look at any tree you might be concerned about.

“If the ground is wet, like it is now, any tree can fall,” Skipper said.

And the ground has surely been wet with emergency responders taking call after call for downed trees, crumpled culverts, sinkholes and flooded roads.

Second to the month of July in total rainfall, so far this, year was May, which saw 11.30 inches of rain. Last year the Tryon area recorded only 7.90 inches of rain in July and only 9.50 inches in May, the wettest month for the area in 2012.

Rainfall for the month of July was 14.45 inches at the Greenville

Spartanburg airport. This is a new monthly rainfall record for that area in July breaking the old record of 13.57 inches, set in 1984. This included 14 days of heavy rain during the month.

“I guess there is a bright side of it – we’ve probably needed a year like this to recharge our ground water. Its been tough on farmers but some of the streams I haven’t seen them at normal levels since the drought problems we’ve had in year’s past,” Vining said.