California
Related: About this forumSanta Cruz has had less rain this season than Death Valley.
http://www.mercurynews.com/science/ci_25031083/drought-shakes-off-winter-perilous-early-spring
It's also been one of the driest Januaries, too. Santa Cruz has had less rain this season than Death Valley. Only 1.34 inches have fallen since July in normally wet Surf City; Furnace Creek has had 1.43 inches....
Bouquets of blossoms also are bursting at Tilden Regional Park's Botanic Garden in the north Berkeley hills, said Bart O'Brien, garden manager. Giant houndstongue? Check. Star lilies? Check. Douglas iris? Ceanothus? Check, check.
"We're a month, even two months, early," he said. Even wildflowers such as shooting star and milkmaids are up, he said.
Tumbulu
(6,292 posts)I will have to reduce my flock of sheep significantly. There will be no feed on the hills and the wells where I am went dry in '77...... I really don't know what to do. Farmers and ranchers are super scared.... Without water nothing grows. Not even the normally rained crops have sprouted....
Please refrain from telling me all about farmer's wasting water. That water gets transformed into produce and trees bearing nuts and oils..... Yikes.
All the small farms around me are taking their animals in for slaughter. It is better they go before we run out of feed.
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)If I have castigated anyone for that, it is Big Ag. And the subsidy system that lets them do it.
Tumbulu
(6,292 posts)It is just the normal mantra about farmers.... Sorry to sound defensive. The farmers all pick on the urban people for wasting water on lawns and golf courses.... The sad thing is that we all need water and in the past two decades EVERYONE has been putting in systems that conserve water, drip systems in Ag ( large and small) and urban people have made huge improvements. I never meet people who wastes water. But this is really sobering, this drought. I feel mighty scared.