It is still devastatingly dry here. 92% of the state is in severe drought conditions, 52% suffering from exceptional drought conditions (that would be us). It's been about 150 days since we had more than ½” of rain. Previous to now the longest span of no rain was 90 something days. I think we've had less rain at the country house than in the city (from whence these statistics come). By now we should have had a little over 20” of our annual rain. What we've gotten is a little more than 7”.
The ground is so dry that when I water it just balls up and rolls off barely impacting the surface. Let the water run long enough and it will soak in. And keep going deeper and deeper so that the surface is dry again in no time. Especially with the hot dry wind. Things I planted in April didn't have enough time to set a good root system. I fear all the azaleas I transplanted but one are dying if they aren't already dead. And I have watered them thoroughly every day. Every day.
The corn which seemed to be growing well last month despite no rain finally gave in. Only half the height of last year it is already turning brown and drying up.
Fires are sprouting everywhere. The latest one they think was started by a hot bearing (or some such hot piece of metal) thrown off a truck. Some counties have forbidden even the sale of fireworks for the holiday.
I find myself almost hoping for a hurricane. Well, maybe not a hurricane but I would welcome a good solid tropical storm right about now. (Well, as long as it's waited this long it can wait til after my sister moves next week.)
It's just plain hot. We've had more triple digit days so far in June than we ever have in August. The glue from the stencil material on the glass that I cut last week had melted off the stencil and onto the glass which made the peeling and sandblasting a pain in the patootie.
And it's just now summer.
Sounds dire - but in my ignorance I always thought Texas was one giant dustbowl anyway; I must have watched too much Dallas in my youth
ReplyDeleteDrought here as well (NM). No significant rainfall since January!!
ReplyDeleteWith all the fires...a good soaking rain would be heavenly!!
Hugs
SueAnn
I almost feel the rain is following me. It filled a bucket left out 2 nights ago with about 6 inches. I wonder what it is like back home, I know it has been wet all over the midwest.i have seen 3 sunny days in the last 2 weeks.
ReplyDeleteAnd here I am, complaining about a few days' worth of rain which we needed urgently for any crops to grow this year
ReplyDeleteTriple digit temperatures would kill me, I am strictly a temperate climate woman, anything above 25 Celsius and I wilt.
I don't envy you your hot climate, although a bit of warmth round her might be nice just now and then. We are still under 20 degrees C most of the time.
As your azaleas didn't get rainwater they'd have died anyway. Azaleas don't flourish with tap water.
They don't mind a bit of dry shade but all of mine die unless I give them acid fertilizer and rain water from the rain water butt.
Feast or famine...we had record rainfalls last month to almost none this month. I believe August has reached us early.
ReplyDeletewow ellen. i like rain as much as sun and would find it hard not to have it around for so long. i wonder if the farmers are irrigating their land like crazy and where that water comes from? steven
ReplyDeleteI've never been a fan of summer. One of the only good things about it is that Fall is next.
ReplyDeleteOh, that's awful. The image of the water balling up and rolling away strikes me... I remember reading The Grapes of Wrath as a child and am having flashbacks to that now...
ReplyDeleteWe in Minnesota are the opposite: flooding, molding, tornado-ing... Outside of a 103 two weeks ago, we are well below our norm up here. For example, normal temp for this date is in the 80s. Today's high will be 68...
Pearl
Reading this makes me want to panic. When we had our terrible drought here a few years ago I was dirge-like. I felt dried up, frightened.
ReplyDeleteHow I wish for rain for you!! You can't imagine how much I wish for rain. Jay it be so.
as irony would have it, I woke to rain this morning here in the city. not a heavy rain but steady. don't know if it's raining at home.
ReplyDeleteEllen, there was a link to the zombie/pirate pub crawl footage up top. :-) Appears to be working!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2oSet3rWCE
Pearl
I'm guzzling water while reading this. I always dread the high heat of summer, but we're not really there yet. I'm sure I'll be complaining about it soon enough. I would probably be UNBEARABLE if I lived in Texas :)
ReplyDeleteWow. I can relate to this post. We live in the dryest state in the country at just 7" annual rainfall - except for this year! We are swimming in water, with snow still in the mountains and all creeks and steams bursting their banks. Go figure.
ReplyDeleteI do hope you get moisture soon!! It's terrible to be in a drought that just seems to go on and on.
I know where a lot of your rain went. This year in IL we got 20 inches more snowfall than the average and year to date we are over 7 inches of rainfall above average. My family lives on the Delmarva Peninsula and they are 10 inches behind on rainfall, which hits the farmers very hard. I hope the rain comes for you soon, and the wildfires stay away. I'd gladly share this rain with you if I could.
ReplyDeleteI miss Texas, but I'm kinda glad I'm not there right now!
ReplyDeleteIt's been raining here, off and on for 3 days and it feels wonderful! Hope you're getting some of it!
ReplyDeleteWOW! one day got up to 69 here...Climate change is said to exaggerate conditions where you live- so you down yonder better get used to frying and we up here will never see the sun again.
ReplyDeleteI'm really sorry you've had no rain. We finally got some the last few days.
ReplyDeleteI think the lack of rain impacts your spirit to some degree. We've had long spells with no rain, but I don't think it's ever been as bad here as what you're experiencing.
I feel for you guys.
Last night on the weather I heard there is a new hurricane just off the tip of Southern Mexico--maybe it will bring some rain your way. I'm up in SE Oklahoma and we have had tons of rain.
ReplyDeleteI knew that Texas had drought conditions, but I was not aware how bad it was. We've gotten a lot of rain in Montana. My Dad said Iowa needed rain, so of course it rained while we were there. Maybe we should visit Texas:). I hope the rain will keep coming and the drought lifts.
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