It is smart to look back at recent historical data in monitoring drought situations to make sure not to be constantly repeating the same mistakes over and over again and to work on problems in advance. This might be of value to you and you can think on it. According to the Drought Monitor issued on April 11, 2002 most parts of Arizona is under drought. This shows most all parts of AZ as severe, and as we visited AZ all last week we saw the heat at 106 degrees. Also alarming at least to me is the problem of the underground water levels. Stream flow: As of April 8, 2002, the United States Geological Survey's daily steam flow maps show reduced flows over central Arizona, some very drastically reduced meaning most all water will be coming from the insightfully build AZ aqueduct project. Running through PHX, and Tucson. http://water.usgs.gov/waterwatch/ I am not sure who else is reviewing this data, but it is now time to pay attention, AZ is in for a very hot summer and it is way to early to get comfortable about the upcoming El Nino rains, they are a ways off still. If you will take a look at 1998 also an El Nino year at; http://enso.unl.edu/ndmc/impacts/us/arizona.htm you will see why I heed warnings that you are not out of the woods yet and AZ especially PHX suburbs grew astronomically and they will require more water needs as the heat comes for summer. And judging by the heat it is already there. Today we are here in Colorado and things are interesting too. Farmers have been complaining about the water too, http://www.weather.com/newscenter
/topstories/workoutside/agriculture/020404xagxdroughtwheat.html I always enjoy the weather.com site as it has significant data, almost as good as the NOAA. I met with a farmer out of Greely, CO who had a problem with near by Ft Collins wanting his water. In Pueblo I met a guy in Barnes and Noble Coffee shop who complained about the up river people and how it would affect them too. This is an interesting article on the Farmer's plight all over CO. Today of course we are having severe weather and the last thing you really want thunderstorms, hot weather and Tornado watches. Trinidad is on fire, so are other parts of the state, it is serious as I type this message out to you. I had a copy of an article I mentioned on my last trip through Denver "Dry conditions recall devastating 2000", by Theo Stein, Denver Post, March 29, 2002 . You know how I hate that newspaper and their propaganda reporting, told the Business editor to FO once at the Denver Post. The jerk called the police. What a crock; he slandered an Entrepreneur and then cannot take a little criticism, what an anti-business newspaper. Anyways this story was right on the money and I guess they predicted today alright, I wish I were somewhere else, fires, Tornados and thunderstorms are not my favorite weather. In the Rocky Mountain News they were talking about the high temps in March causing irregular patterns in ice melt and with low snow pack the water supply is as bad this year as MT is facing as we discussed in Part II of the is VI report. http://www.rockymountainnews.com/
drmn/local/article/0%2C1299%2CDRMN_15_1043238%2C00.html By March 11, they were not saying very many good things about the drought, yet the people just keep buying houses and piling in. This will probably hurt our prospects of sales in Colorado Springs, Denver, and Loveland/Ft Collins/ Cheyenne areas too. As it stands it is being considered by the Governor a Drought Emergency : 11 counties in CO eligible for USDA emergency farm loans although this is only a start. If you will remember in October 31, 2001-- The U.S. Department of Agriculture named 11 counties in Colorado as eligible for USDA emergency farm loans due to losses caused by drought that occurred earlier this year. Eagle, Garfield, and Pitkin Counties were named as primary disaster areas on October 25, 2001. Also eligible because they are contiguous, are Chaffee, Grand, Gunnison, Lake, Mesa, Rio Blanco, Routt, and Summit Counties. Here again the same counties are still having the problem. Back in August of 2001 in was 18 counties and those same counties look like it will reoccur. -- The U.S. Department of Agriculture today named 18 counties and possibly ready to add two more in Dec., then the rains came, but not hard enough. In Colorado as eligible for USDA emergency (EM) farm loans due to losses caused by hail, high winds, winds, flash flooding, flooding, rain, freezing temperatures, and severe winter weather, that occurred from May 20 through June 21, 2001. For more information on the most recent activities in CO watch CNN fro a fire update and you can go to: http://enso.unl.edu/ndmc/impacts/us/colorado.htm Working on down the list let us look at Delaware, yes Delaware surrounded by water is also in a rather bad predicament. Saltwater intrusion for farmers, wells running dry in some places, farmers pitted against city dwellers and it ain't over . http://enso.unl.edu/ndmc/impacts/us/delaware.htm Warnings were issued in Dec. and again in April and now again last week. Sure it is remaining but the average rainfall deficit still exists and it is a long summer indeed. Recently I discussed Fl and I understand they got some rain today, but it was sporadic at best and nothing significant enough to end an 8-year drought situation. http://www.coaps.fsu.edu/climate_center/ http://disaster.ifas.ufl.edu/chap16fr.htm http://drought.tbo.com/ Florida needs to finish that Desalination plant in Tampa and develop better water retention after the heavy storm seasons to trap that water for later use. Meanwhile the Everglades are at issue with some of the pollution runoff and the algae bloom off the coast of Fort Myers about 80 clicks is not looking to pretty either. It either rains or drought in Florida and the population continues to grow while water supply and retention ability remains constant. |
