It was 7 weeks ago when the Sacramento Valley last had rain. That was before Christmas.
Here in the Valley we only have 2 seasons: the one where rain is possible, and the one where rain isn't at all likely. We're in the middle of the one where rain is possible, and the last rain was 7 weeks ago. Around these parts we call that a drought--just like we did in 1976, back when the leading scientists of the day were telling us we were heading towards another ice age.
This morning when I got to work I stepped out of the car and smelled that ozone smell, that smell associated with rain. I remained hopeful.
As students came into one of my morning classes they were chattering about rain; I went outside yet saw and felt none.
Helios the Sun God had deserted us the day before, but it wasn't until after lunch that Hydros the Water God made his presence known. We may rack up a quarter inch or so of rain here in the Valley, but at least it will help turn some of the lawns green. I heard on the news a couple weeks ago that either our season rainfall total or our water storage, one or the other, was at 20% of normal for this time in the season. That's just gruesome and it'll make for a bad summer, especially when the temperature hits the triple digits.
It's probably a good year to want to become a firefighter, yaknowwhatImean?
I saw a recent documentary on Lake Mead. It seems the water has dropped so low that soon the intake for water for people in Las Vegas and southern California will be out of the reach of the water.They are digging a new outflow tunnel 650 underground. In the meantime, with all the limitations on dams and such, what are the western states going to do without water? Texas has its own struggles. By the way, this ties into exponential growth in population and having borders that are not controlled leads to forced acceleration of use of resources.
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