I knew it was hot when the garden was dried out after being watered good early this morning. I was shocked when Time & Temp told the temperature. Even the weather app on the computer shows 108 degrees. Monday through Wednesday we were between 95 & 98 for the high each day.
How is the drought affecting England, France & Germany? BBC world news was saying it's bad there. Anyone from those countries on this group being affected?
Desert West Texas
Not exactly Europe, but here is...
In the MId Seventies Fahrenheit in Michigan. No drought here but the opposite. We got lots and lots of rain in the last two days. Farmers that just got their plantings done two weeks ago may lose it all, if they did not have good drainage.
It rained literally every day in the Month of May. Then two weeks of nice dry weather to get the planting done. Now rain again.. Lots of rain... Too much rain that will hurt farmers. They may try and replant.
As my personal garden is going well. Since I use raised beds for almost everything except corn and corn does not like wet feet.
New Jersey.
Not hot enough for me.
Mostly low 80s, sunny and dry for a while, now a little rain. Garden thriving. Near perfect for growing.
Well, the BBC was reporting horrible drought conditions in the Scottish Highlands all through the Spring -- fires on the moor etc. When I got there in early May it rained every bloody day except one for two weeks. I would have been happier had the drought continued for a bit more since I was hiking from Fort William to up past Inverness and I really hate damp walks with raingear constantly going on and coming off.
Here in E. Tennessee we've had more rain, in bursts, than we can practically use since the big April storms and continuing through last Friday with flash flood warnings interspersed with storm warnings.
In time of drought, farmers complain of starving. In time of flood, farmers starve. (old proverb)
In times of drought this bad, this area would be almost uninhabitable without electricity to pump ground water.
Fires burned the area around Carlsbad Caverns last week. If you heard about the fires at Springerville, Arizona, that area was one of the most beautiful forest and camping areas I've ever been to. No idea what it's like now. In the summer hundreds of people walk and ride bikes along the road each day. They have great Bar-B-Q.
An' once the Ogallala Aquifer in West Texas is empty, all the electricity in the world won't help. Recharge in the aquifer is 0.024 inches (0.61 mm) per year in parts of Texas and New Mexico
The Ogalla Aquifer in Nebraska and Kansas seems OK, but it is running dry in Texas and New Mexico. The recharge in the aquifer is 0.024 inches (0.61 mm) per year in parts of Texas and New Mexico.
Aquifers in Yemen, India, northern China, Afghanistan, Mexico, and Pakistan are being pumped faster than they can recharge. There is fossil water aquifers in Saudi Arabia, which are close to running dry. One fifth of the American grain, 3/5 Indian grain, and 4/5 of China's grain comes from irrigation. India and China account for 40% of the worlds population. These 3 countries account for 50% of the world's annual grain harvest. Half the world's population live in countries with falling aquifers. Forty percent of the world's grain comes from irrigated land, and 70% of the worlds fresh water is used for irrigation.
Add to this the diminished snow falls (not this year;o), as on the Sierras in California that is diverted to farming in the Central Valley, and vanishing glaciers in Bolivia and India, and a scary problem presents itself. IIRC in 1970 there was 130 days of excess food for everyone on the planet. Today there is 40 days of excess food.
If the entire ice sheet around Greenland were to melt, it would lead to a 26 ft. rise in sea level, but even a 3 foot rise in the oceans would sharply reduce the amount of rice grown in Bangladesh, and the Mekong Delta. Vietnam exports rice to 20 countries.
When temperatures rise during the growing season, grain yields fall. Crop ecologists use a rule of thumb that for each 1-degree-Celsius rise in temperature above the optimum during the growing season, you can expect a 10% decline in grain yields. Photosynthesis plateaus at 95 degrees Fahrenheit, declines to 104 degrees F, and then stops.
People said much the same thing about those ginormous Yellowstone fires a decade ago. The thing is, those areas would not burn like this if they had been allowed to burn naturally a few times. Granted, there were other serious issues like drought. But forests are _supposed_ to burn every now and then. Many species are even fire-adapted.
Chris
People said much the same thing about those ginormous Yellowstone fires a decade ago. The thing is, those areas would not burn like this if they had been allowed to burn naturally a few times. Granted, there were other serious issues like drought. But forests are _supposed_ to burn every now and then. Many species are even fire-adapted. ________________________________________ Yup. Many Australian trees need fire (or the smoke from fires) to throw seeds.
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