Thursday, July 27, 2006

A dry state


The town officials of Lubbuck, Texas are organizing a "Pray for Rain" day on Sunday. The drought is bad, it's bad here in Austin too. They're doing it because it worked for them in 2004. Well, we shall see. NOAA (National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration) posts a Drought Information Center, so it makes it easy to see if the prayers are working. The state of the dry conditions which include Lubbock are called things like "extreme" and "severe", and the outlook through October is "persistence". Around here it's like the rain clouds form, they spit at us, and move down the road (...although it did rain here on the 4th of July. Did that mean god wanted to ruin the fireworks?). Just as sure as the hurricanes will be extra bad again this year, it's going to be hotter and drier than usual through central and west Texas. It was incredibly hot and dry here last year while the coasts were being pounded by storms. Maybe some of these people will pray that people will start making more effort to reduce global warming.

I truly believe that a whole lot more needs to be done to conserve water, especially during these times, and make it mandatory if people won't comply, dammit [grrrrr]. It's OK for grass to be brown. Like that patch of grass out there between the Target store and the highway. Stop pouring water on it with your damned sprinklers!! Here's a page for Austin with general info for conserving water. Sorry it's no help for Lubbuck.

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