Thanks you. I feel bad for the butterflies...they can't all fly a long way to get to someplace better. Sometimes they don't make it. Oh, also...there has been a lot of wildfires and not just in Texas..lots of acreage...can you imagine all those areas with the plants and grasses burned up? Then the tornados and floods in various areas of the states. All that affects all the wildlife, I'm sure. Oh...today I saw one white butterfly! Woohoo!

The drought in Texas is terrible, and I agree that it's affected the butterflies. I think the droughts in Texas and Florida have especially reduced the numbers of gulf frits, since most of them probably breed their way north from Texas and Florida to the other Gulf states. Gulf frits have reportedly overwintered on Dauphin Island, Alabama, so they may also overwinter on other northern Gulf islands, also Plaquemines Parish, LA.
The three southern most counties in MS have experienced severe drought, enough that there were some bad forest fires. It was drier than normal all over south MS, but July rains have about erased it. I've had just under 11" of rain so far this month, with more predicted - the coastal counties have gotten even more.
Hopefully, Texas will get their share soon!
Sherry

It is so hot and dry at my house. In other parts of our county they are getting as much as 2" a day for the past 3 days.

I live between 2 big hills/small mountains and they do a great job of holding the rain clouds back. :(

My grass is brown and crunches when you take a step. All of the new plants are suffering. I'm praying for rain.

Betty

....and don't forget Oklahoma. Much of our state is also included in the severe drought affecting the South. We are on restricted watering now here in OKC. A lot of folks gave up their vegetable gardens early on because they couldn't afford the water bill, or their gardens are too big and dependent solely on rainfall. Apparently the crops throughout the Central South and North into the Midwestern States are having a terrible time with the heat and drought, too.

I pray for everyone and their families. I heard today on the news that the long range forecast is that we will have a dry and very warm fall, too. Geez.....

Susan

I've decided that the weather people actually don't know WHAT it's going to do! First La Nina (which tends to cause droughts in Texas) was ending in June. But things just got worse, not better! So then they said...La Nina might be coming back in fall. Well...IMO, it never ended!
Sherri...11 inches in less than a MONTH??? We've only had maybe 5" for the whole year! Okay, rant is over! Going to bed, have to get up and feed and water the wildlife in the morning!

The combination of little to no rain and the high temperatures is miserable. We did get about a 20 minute shower over the weekend - cooled us off from 107 to 101. And then of course the humidity was awful. Sigh... I'm doing my best to keep my plants watered but feel like I'm slowly losing the battle. Yet I can't give up quite yet.

~Laura

Yes, Linda, I've gotten almost 11" so far this month. This isn't unusual for this area in July, August and September, though. I can't imagine only having 5" in a year - how horrible!
I really feel for y'all having to water every day! I watered my garden about every other day in June, and it was really miserable - I hate garden hose, trying to keep it from knocking down plants along its path.
One of the (many) reasons we retired here in the country, halfway between Hattiesburg and Gulfport, was because of the better distribution of rainfall here as compared to the Coast where we did live. The Coast doesn't get many afternoon showers/thunderstorms in summer, although it does get morning, tropical showers some years. When it does rain down there, though, it can be a flood! After going with so little rain for several months, Pass Christian reportedly got 13" in one day a few weeks ago! Here, thirty-five or so miles inland, we get the 1" totals in the afternoon in summer pretty regularly.
I saw some pictures of Oklahoma on television, Susan, and it showed cracked soil - terrible! Let's all pray for Texas and Oklahoma! I had a taste of what they (and the poor wildlife) is going through, and know how bad it was!
Sherry

I feel for you. I remember my college graduation many years ago when Ohio was going through a severe drought. We sat outside in close to 100 degree weather for the ceremony. The pictures show me without shoes on! We are a forested community and the trees were all brown. I was on the volunteer fire department at the time and we were called out every week for wildfires. Some bozo tossing out a cigarette from the car. We have had lack of rain but nothing like that for a while. I wasn't into butterflies then and can't imagine what you are going through. I will do a rain dance here for you.
-Elisabeth

108.9 today in Tulsa, OK. And that, unfortunately, is not a radio station. :-/

~Laura

Our temp is the same as Tulsa today. This morning it was like 88 degrees. I just don't water every day, but every other day. Just have to make that work for me, and it does pretty well.

I saw on the news tonight where all 77 counties in Oklahoma have been declared a disaster area due to crop failures. I can believe that. It is just too darned hot to even get out and enjoy the butterflies. If I am not watering, I try to get out for an hour or so in the morning, and maybe 15 minutes or so in the evening around 8 p.m.

I have a feeling the Monarch migration will circumvent Oklahoma and Texas. There is no food or nectar plants out there for them. Sad.....

Susan

108.9 is just wrong. Starting the rain dance now....

Sounds like %$@! on earth to me!
In the middle of the heat and drought here, in June, it got up to 101 degrees two days in a row, and I thought that was horrible.
I'm turning on the Indian music, getting out the rattles, putting on my moccasins, and moving around the room....
Sherry

I got an e-mail from WWL Radio that says there's a tropical storm - Don - that's formed in the Gulf, and it's headed for Texas.
I guess our prayers and rain dances worked! :)

Sherry

I saw that today Sherry and the projected path has it going into central to western texas which is potentially good news for us. We need it unfortunately to be a pretty strong hurricane when it hits land though to really impact us and that's unfortunate for those on the Texas coast.
:-(

We've had so many 104, 105, and 106+ days now that when it's *only* 100 outside, you can actually feel the difference and it feels good. Crazy, huh?

~Laura

Please be safe out there in my birth state(Texas) guys. Hate to hear about the fires, hot drought weather and now a hurricane? :(

~Tina Marie

We've had a heat warning for over a week now. Not 105ð however, maybe with the heat indices it's up there, but the actual temp isn't that high. I feel for anyone who lives anywhere near wildfires. That's just scarey. A few days ago, I think it was, Chicago got over 10" of rain. Last night, they kept breaking in on tv. North of us, it was raining pretty bad. West of us, the same thing. Everyone around us got rain. I mean flash flood rain. We got a tenth of an inch. So with all this rain, you hear how IL has way too much rain. I'm here to say that there's pockets where we're getting next to none! Most of my plants are native to this area of IL and when they're wilting? You know it's bad...I've never seen them like this. Plus I've lost 2 shrubs already this season :(

I second Tina Marie sentiments, please be safe out there!

Okay, backing off the rain dance now. Let's hope and pray that Tropical Storm Don brings enough rain and minimal damage.

Never thought I would be happy to see low 90's. I do appreciate the perspective. Just sorry you'all have to live through it.
-Elisabeth

We've been hovering near 100 degrees daily here in NW GA, and rain has been very scarce here too. I think you make a good point Elisabeth. I guess time will tell about the true impact on the butterflies.~~Angie

I just asked about the gulf Frits on the Florida forum, they thought it may have been the Severe winter we and Texas had, but then again, with a shortage after winter then a drought for us into July we have wiped them out. On any given day I used to have 20+ Frits, I haven't seen not one since April...my passion vine is way out of bounds....I miss my butterflies....hopefully the storm will bring the rain to Texas, Out drought is over...so maybe next year will be better.....:(

Sitting here reading all the posts, it's just down right depressing! I'm in the Tulsa area. We have had an Ash tree and a White Oak drop their leaves. My Joe Pye Weed is drooping badly, poor flowering this year. And our water bill is going to be horrendous this month. We need a break in the temps and some moisture.

Sandy

I'm tracking the tropical storm and so far it looks good...we've got a shot at rain this weekend. Of course, I've also experienced the problem mentioned by someone about rain happening in different areas nearby, but just missing our area, in the past. Over and over again.

kwweoijt mu fingred vrossed! Did you get that?
-Ekisabdth

Wow....temps in the 100s and exceptional drought for weeks on end? I'll stop whining about it being kinda dry around here, and the 104 heat index we had for 1 1/2 days...

I hope the drought-stricken areas get some rain soon!