I have posted several diaries about the drought and it's impact on my region in the South West. The drought is not over yet. Although we did get a bit of rain in the fall in Oklahoma, and that helped, we are still way behind the moisture 8 ball when it comes to the amount of rain we need to reach parity.
The good news:
Well sort of good news. The grasses and trees are supposed to be brown and golden because it's winter. So it sort of looks normal outside for the fall.
However it's a lot warmer than usual, for this time of the year. We are having days where the high temperatures reach the 60s, sometimes even the 70s with very little ambient moisture in the air. This means that all that dead vegetation is getting dryer and dryer. We are living in a tender box.
Some of the strange things I am seeing this winter- It's the start of December. Roses are still in bloom. Sure they aren't covered with blooms, but they are still blooming, and it's warm enough that they still exude their perfume. Let me repeat, it's December and the roses are still blooming. Here are two pictures from yesterday. I know of several places miles from this site, where there are roses still blooming.
Notice this one has a honey bee visiting the rose. There were several bees on this bush. This bush had a lot of blooms. It's not unheard of for honey bees to be active on warm winter days, but with erratic weather, it's not good for them. They use up more energy and need more food. Only problem is, there is very little food to be had. The flowers aren't going to bloom in numbers large enough to sustain the bees, but it's not cold enough to force them to cluster. The worst part is, if it stays dry and warm, the flowers that do bloom this spring will be smaller, and dryer. Meaning that they make less pollen and nectar, and what they do produce will be of a lower nutritional value.
Normally in these parts, we don't get a lot of snow. We do get a lot of cold rainy days in October and November, followed by lots of hard frosts, and very cold, windy days, with temperatures at or below freezing. Meaning roses are not out after Halloween during normal weather.
Then sometime between January and February, we might get a couple of Ice Storms. This regular occurrence is why we don't have the same kind of forested areas as other states. These massive ice storms that hit out here, are hard on the trees. After one or two of those hit, a home owner can spend months on a couple of acres with a chain saw, cleaning up the mess.
This photo is from 2010. The native plants out here, normally do well. Note the presence of healthy red buds on this wild rose cane, under the ice.
Many of our wild roses died back after 2 years of drought. Although they are very heat and drought and ice tolerant, the hot soil combined with no significant moisture finally did them in. Even my Rugosa roses are dying, and just about gone. I watered and fed them carefully, and it's just not enough to counteract the extreme summer time dryness and heat.
The wild roses are something special. They have small white single blooms that usually bloom around the first week of May. And when they do, there are so many blooms that the air is filled with the heady scents of cinnamon and vanilla. The bees and hover flies go nuts over these blooms. The white flowers have a delicate slight pink center, with yellow stamens. Some cane stands get so large that they look like narrow tree stands.
This is a Black-Jack Oak under several inches of ice in the winter of 2007:
Black-Jack Oaks do well here, because they are brittle, and they break off branches without seeming to suffer much for it.
Smaller red buds and sumac, and locusts, do well because their wood is flexible and bends under the weight of the ice without breaking much. Same with cedars. You can see the cedars in the picture just above, bending under the weight of the ice, huddled like old women under sparkly green blankets.
We expect a significant portion of our moisture in this form just about every winter.
This is the morning after an ice storm in 2009.
This was taken in 2010, when we had those blizzards. I cannot recall ever seeing hoar frost out here, so I felt compelled to take a picture of it when it happened. It was beautiful. It's hard to believe such intense, wet winters would be followed by these terrible droughts.
This season, has felt like Winter in Houston, minus the ambient moisture in the air. There is hope early next week, that we might get some rain. I hope so, because we really need it.
We really need the temperatures to drop and stay low too, for several reasons:
To put a dent in the tick and spider and flea populations.
And so that the soil temperature doesn't raise too early [like it did last year] tricking our plants into blooming 6 to 8 weeks early. See other blog entries about last spring's bizarre blooming times.
More Untimely Blooms
It's Beautiful and All Wrong
If that happens and we get a sudden cold snap, it could decimate our peach crops, and it's very hard on our bee population, because it can destroy those early blooms depriving our pollinators of normal early spring nectar and pollen sources.
All of the local lakes are still very low. You can walk out into the middle of their beds, because they are dry for yards inward. Some creeks are but a trickle, or are just dry completely, and the larger rivers have more sand bars exposed than usual. The winter is when we get a lot of our moisture, so many places should be running high, but instead they haven't even reached normal levels.
My husband and I are anticipating more death valley like temperatures this summer, meaning weeks of temperatures above 106--worst case scenario could mean 100 degree nights and 113+ degree days like the last two years.
We are going to be building a canopy for my garden soon, or at least installing the poles. So I can run a mister hose around it, and put that garden in dappled shade, so I can cool it off enough that the pollen isn't sterilized by the heat. This means I might get some beefsteak variety tomatoes, or Okra or melons.
I built a makeshift greenhouse last winter. It has a metal frame, but it was crafted of chain-link fence posts. So it was difficult to cover. I bought a heavy duty clear, nylon tarp to cover it with. I should have removed the tarp, but didn't get around to it, during the summer. It advertised that it was all weather and should last a couple years.
The temperatures were so hot, that the plastic melted and all that is left is the nylon webbing. I guess 113+ plus days will do that. I let the sunflowers grow up around it, so I am dreading what I will find when I go inside of it to clean it up.
Right now I am pulling up sunflower stalks in in my garden area. When the extreme heat killed the okra, and the pumpkins and squash, the only thing going were some tomatoes. Mostly just Sungolds. So like the year before this one, I let the flowers take over so at least the bees would have something. I kept watering the garden, so the flowers would make nectar and pollen. And despite the barren land around me due to the drought, I did get some honey from my bees. Not much, but a little.
We are still having these ridiculous arguments with the batshit crazy GOP about climate change, meanwhile:
Low Water Levels on Mississippi River Threaten Shipping.
The mighty Mississippi is approaching the point where it may become too shallow for barges that carry food, fuel and other commodities. If the river is closed for a lengthy period, experts say, economic losses could climb into the billions of dollars. Denver Post
I ask myself that rhetorical question all the time, "What will it take to wake these money hungry morons up?"
It will take some event so ridiculously extreme and personal, to shake these idiots out of their greed induced coma.
But then again, even that doesn't seem to work.
What that will be, is beyond me. You would think that the Mighty Mississippi River drying up would count as extreme, or the bizarre nature of Hurricane Sandy would count as extreme, but apparently not. Not even talk of another Dust Bowl can shake these dingalings awake.
I worry about my own well drying up. When the droughts get bad here, especially with housing booming in this area + all those newly drilled private wells. I worry about the water being depleted to such a degree, that we won't be able to do much without capturing rain or getting on rationed city water.
I worry about wildfires. Last year the fires didn't get too near us. But the two years before? We had to evacuate a couple of times as a precaution. One night, it was so close we spent the night in a hotel, unable to get news about whether our house was still standing. It was nerve wracking.
I recently heard talks about another Dust Bowl, but it's been a concern for a while in this region. In 2010 a story in USA Today stated:
Gary McManus, a climatologist for Oklahoma's state-run climate organization, says global warming could have a "catastrophic" impact across the parts of Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas and Oklahoma that suffered most in the "Dirty Thirties." He says the region's climate is so dry, even in the best of times, that just a small increase in average temperatures could quickly cause critical amounts of moisture in the soil to evaporate. That could mean more severe dust storms. And, McManus says, droughts could become longer and more acute as weather patterns shift. Meanwhile, the Ogallala Aquifer, the vast underground reservoir upon which the area relies for nearly all of its water, is being depleted by growing demand from commercial agriculture and urban centers. USA Today 2010
The predictions regarding the Dust Bowl scenario seem a bit light to me in other pieces. But then I live here, and have watched the drought and high soil temperatures, and high night time temperatures sterilize some parts of the land. I am watching growth that outstrips our resources, and a mentality that seems to purposefully ignore this rather important notion.
I have my generator ready, my cold weather gear too. I don't normally pray for ice storms, but I would take any kind of moisture we can get right now. Anything to feed the land and cool it off. The planet is literally running a fever.
If you are new to these posts, here are some links to previous diaries, so you can have the backstory.
Three Days of Rain.
Signs of Life.
Listening Drive Last Night.
More Extreme Heat, Drought and Fires.
I bragged in this post about using sunflowers to shade my garden from the extreme heat. It worked for a while. But once we got those 110+ days for a couple of weeks, even that wasn't enough. Hence the need for a canopy with shade cloth.
Also I misidentified a bug on this post. That big black thing that looked like a spider wasp, is actually a Midas Fly [no stinger].
Today it Will Reach 104 Degrees.
I don't know if anything can be done about the changes to our global climate patterns. But if people work together we can mitigate some of the hazards.
That is the root of my frustration with the GOP. They are so obstinate and greedy, that they block attempts to improve our lot, just to be shitty. I am so incredibly tired to that.
7:43 AM PT: Here is a diary that also covers the strange winter weather by a Gearheadgirl: The End of Weather As We Knew It. She is covering the Eastern Seaboard from Florida to the Mid-Atlantic states and Upper Midwest.
http://www.dailykos.com/...