That is truly shocking, on a lot of levels.

Geez, the whole state except on small corner in the NE is either extreme or exceptional. Not good

And we got elevated from 'serious' to 'extreme'. We do not even have a well.

Well, here in SoCal, we are "Extreme."
I suspect that by this time next year, we may join you in the "Exeptional" ranks.
:-(

Jeri

We are extreme here as well. I'm on city water...and have been keeping my garden alive by hand watering. It's not pretty. Work at the GC has been grim...we've turned off the overhead system and are hand-watering everything. I live with a hose in my hands. When I'm not watering I'm trying to convince people NOT to buy plants. Seriously...who puts in new landscaping when it's 96 degrees and we are in a drought?

We guarantee shrubs and trees, not perennials, but I still try to talk people out of buying stuff. Yeah, the shop could make more by selling stuff twice, but that's unfair to the customers AND the plants.

IT. IS. TOO. HOT. AND. DRY.

melanie

Hi Ann, well it's been an up and down summer here in N.AL and with rain we have managed to stay at the exceptional level the whole time. We did get 5 inches of rain two weekends ago but that was the first since Aug 4 where we saw an inch. July we actually saw normal rainfall but since it was so dry leading up to the month we didn't waiver from this. Looks like rain today but it will probably rain itself out to our west before it reaches us. Welcome to the desert SouthEast. :)

PS. low-flow mister systems do a great job of keeping the gardens watered and our Aug water bill was below average. Go figure and I thought I had used a lot more.

Well I know where all your water went. See that big fat white state in the middle south of the US? Look closely because if the weather doesn't change soon the whole state of Texas is going to wash away and flow right into the Gulf.
I'm from So Cal originally so I'm used to droughts but not so used to all this rain. My dogs are coming apart at the seams with the thunder storms and I think the leaves on my roses have yellow veining due to drowning. We haven't even had triple digit temps at all this year, how odd ball is that?

You're right Michelle. And it is a strange year when it is hotter where I am on the California coast than it is where my cousins are in Houston and Austin. Strange year indeed.

Jeri

"They" (most environmental scientists) aren't calling it a CLIMATE CRISES for nothing. Dry areas will get dryer, rain is expected to become less frequent, and when it does rain torrential downpours are to be expected. The country is overdeveloped to boot so runoff is accelerated, which just worsens flood conditions.

This "drought" is nothing compared to what is coming down the pike.

Welcome to the club. We've been this way for five, yes, that's right, 5 years. That Bermuda High just floats in and parks right over us, blocking any possibilities of serious rainfall. We hang in there and pray right on.

It looks like some of the rain we've had in the past few weeks has moved my country from the exceptional to only extreme.

We had our lawn aerated today. I was amazed how packed and dry the little plugs were.

I find this drought stressful. Can sort of imagine what it must have been like in the dust bowl years ago. I can see how people would hire rainmakers. My son used to have a chant when he was little for bringing on thunderstorms and I've even tried it lately. ( no luck) If you want to try it though, you say this several times kind of fast, " Wee wah dee wah wee wah dee wah!!" Good luck.
Linda

9th year of drought here but, thankfully, we are going the other direction. A year of normal moisture (13 inches/yr) has us down to severe. Hope you get out of the exceptional category soon. The drought has had major economic impact.

I'm reminded of the drought every time I dig in deep utilities. Areas we had to pump groundwater 10 years ago are bone dry now. Aquifers are slow to recover.

I was posting that a couple hours ago... a thunderstorm was rolling through and as I went to type it was 'raining here now' we lost power. Didn't mind at all. Went out on the front porch and watched the rain.

digger

Should have had my reading specs last night... 8th year of drought.

we are still in the 'abnormally dry' zone, despite recent rains. This has been the hottest and driest summer I can remember... last year we averaged about a half inch of rain a week, the years before that we would get 1 inch of rain a week... this year, I don't believe we have gotten an inch of rain a month. I've been watering - ME, the Queen of Darwinian Gardening!!

Only abnormal here but I can't imagine that, really. We had a very dry early spring followed by good rains until the first of August which caught up the yearly average to this point. Now, it's raining for the next 4-5 days. After 3 years of drought, this has been welcome relief. Just returned from TN and I sympathize with the terrible conditions there. From the air, you can see the dried up lake beds for miles.

Tomorrow Gabrielle should hit us. Either she is a tropical storm or will be a low-grade hurricane. Alas, we are warned that we should expect damaging winds but only 1/2-inch max 1-inch rain. That would main salt burn on the vegetation but no relief from drought.

To add insult to injury, then we get back to the) 0Âs F + humidity because the cold front is/will be pushed back again.