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Don't know about the rest of folks in Arkansas but I track the rainfall rather closely. We have had no rain since August 14. And the next ten days on The Weather Channel show little to no chance with very high temperatures. And apparently we are on the cusp of entering the latest hurricane season in history so no residual impact from that either. We will soon be going over a whole month without rainfall.
If this continues much longer I fear we will begin seeing wild fires, water rationing and other undesirable aspects. Although where I live in my home will be unaffected, it breaks my heart to see the effects on very large mature trees that will soon die from lack of moisture.
Anyone have any thoughts about this situation? I live in Hot Springs. But I'm just not seeing anything on the horizon that looks promising. I would be very concerned if we were living in the country where wildfires can quickly get out of control.
Don't know about the rest of folks in Arkansas but I track the rainfall rather closely. We have had no rain since August 14. And the next ten days on The Weather Channel show little to no chance with very high temperatures. And apparently we are on the cusp of entering the latest hurricane season in history so no residual impact from that either. We will soon be going over a whole month without rainfall.
If this continues much longer I fear we will begin seeing wild fires, water rationing and other undesirable aspects. Although where I live in my home will be unaffected, it breaks my heart to see the effects on very large mature trees that will soon die from lack of moisture.
Anyone have any thoughts about this situation? I live in Hot Springs. But I'm just not seeing anything on the horizon that looks promising. I would be very concerned if we were living in the country where wildfires can quickly get out of control.
Hey there Mr. or Ms. Mule!
I couldn't help but notice the title of your thread because I've been posting about the very same thing over in the Colorado forum and it breaks my heart to see our beautiful forests dying from the impact of warming and drought. According to NOAA, your instincts are spot on for the entire southern half of Arkansas - severe drought over that region. Check out their graphic. You're somewhat better off than we are in SW Colorado for what small consolation that gives. These are very upsetting days for those of us in the drought stricken parts of the US who are paying attention to what's been happening. Best of luck to you and sending wishes for rain for BOTH our regions.
Don't know about the rest of folks in Arkansas but I track the rainfall rather closely. We have had no rain since August 14. And the next ten days on The Weather Channel show little to no chance with very high temperatures. And apparently we are on the cusp of entering the latest hurricane season in history so no residual impact from that either. We will soon be going over a whole month without rainfall.
If this continues much longer I fear we will begin seeing wild fires, water rationing and other undesirable aspects. Although where I live in my home will be unaffected, it breaks my heart to see the effects on very large mature trees that will soon die from lack of moisture.
Anyone have any thoughts about this situation? I live in Hot Springs. But I'm just not seeing anything on the horizon that looks promising. I would be very concerned if we were living in the country where wildfires can quickly get out of control.
yes, it has been dry and most of us have gardens that have suffered but I don't think it is nearly as serious as you think it is. How about places in the west, they have seen almost no rain in the past year. We seem to be going from one extreme to another. We were up over 3 in a month ago and now down about 2 here in NWA.
I am not sure what the hurricane season has to do with anything. Actually hurricane season, if we have a bad one, is more likely to produce rain.
I am not taking this lightly, but I am not terribly concerned right now: if it continues into the fall and winter, that will be another story. Now let us all pray for some moisture from the sky and I don't mean just humidity!!!
yes, it has been dry and most of us have gardens that have suffered but I don't think it is nearly as serious as you think it is. How about places in the west, they have seen almost no rain in the past year. We seem to be going from one extreme to another. We were up over 3 in a month ago and now down about 2 here in NWA.
I am not sure what the hurricane season has to do with anything. Actually hurricane season, if we have a bad one, is more likely to produce rain.
I am not taking this lightly, but I am not terribly concerned right now: if it continues into the fall and winter, that will be another story. Now let us all pray for some moisture from the sky and I don't mean just humidity!!!
To answer the matter of the hurricanes, if one were to come in we would receive rainfall although not the intensity that the people on the coast would. Ideally, the hurricane comes inland and swerves to the east and we would get the "clean" side of the hurricane moisture.
This was a common situation in Texas where we lived exactly 200 miles inland. While Galveston and Houston would be hit hard we would almost always receive some rainfall as a result. We personally never had any damage but just to the east on the "dirty side" of the hurricane we would see widespread tree downings and other damage. As these hurricanes come in from the Gulf they lose their intensity first turning into a tropical storm then a depression, etc., until it dissipates but they can carry moisture all the way nearly to Canada.
I just got interested in seeing what the forecasts were and found the surprising fact that this is about the latest that we have gone without a hurricane making landfall. As of yesterday there wasn't even a tropical storm or significant depression indicating one. Not exactly sure what to make of this; perhaps it has something to do with the climate change we are said to be having.
What is unusual is that we haven't had a drop of rain since August 14. Up to that time we had 31.30 inches of rain that I measured in my rain gauge. Typically we have about 3 inches in August and 4 inches in September. Normally, Hot Springs gets 56 inches of rain in an average year. Nationwide it is 36.5 inches. So this is unusual as is the very hot weather. I'm really getting very weary of it and ready to see it go away and return to normalcy.
I don't wish to see Arkansas experience the drought that drove us out of Texas in 2011. I had never planned on leaving there and we usually had more than sufficient rain. But it nearly drove me bonkers. I can remember 118 degrees in Dallas and 160 degrees on the pavement. That year I lost many mature oak trees even though I watered nearly 1 million gallons of water on the lawn and trees where we lived. I often say that was the year that "Texas burned down." I don't want the same for beautiful Arkansas.
Last edited by rmissourimule; 09-09-2013 at 02:54 PM..
I couldn't help but notice the title of your thread because I've been posting about the very same thing over in the Colorado forum and it breaks my heart to see our beautiful forests dying from the impact of warming and drought. According to NOAA, your instincts are spot on for the entire southern half of Arkansas - severe drought over that region. Check out their graphic. You're somewhat better off than we are in SW Colorado for what small consolation that gives. These are very upsetting days for those of us in the drought stricken parts of the US who are paying attention to what's been happening. Best of luck to you and sending wishes for rain for BOTH our regions.
Yours,
Colorado Rambler
If I may opine about your situation it would be that I think the whole idea of preventing "cool burn" fires should be rethought. Where you really get into trouble is with the build-up of underbrush from putting out what would be normal fires that occur naturally. I remember visiting Yellowstone in 1974. There must have been four or five feet of underbrush of dead trees and assorted debris. When it went up in flames in 1988 it was, you may recall, a total disaster and took a long time to finally get under control. What made it all the worse was that the "hot burn" prevented the normal reforestation that occurs after a typical "cool burn. If I am not mistaken it is these types of burns that release the seeds from the tree cones. But in that instance everything was just killed off. We visited Yellowstone around 1995 and there was some recovery but will take two lifetimes to return to normal. There are some of the great forest fires that will leave scars on the land for decades before the forests recover. I can remember driving through Canada and seeing some of the historic fires 60 years prior and the forests had still not recovered. Not exactly sure how that would have been prevented.
Seems to me that there ought to be a national policy of burning off the underbrush to keep these fires from getting to the point where they leave permanent damage. There may be some movement in this direction because the total fire ban disrupted the normal "pruning" of the forests by nature that left the land around the trees largely free of this debris. The large pines, like the Ponderosa pines can take quite a bit of fire if it is the low intensity. If it is the super hot fires, then all bets are off. They will be killed off and to repopulate the forests from seedlings takes generations to accomplish.
If anyone is out east and can drive the Blueridge Parkway (some 600 miles long), there are photos along the way of the scarred landscape when it was devastated by bad land management. During the depression years this was one of the projects that restored the land. As anyone who has driven it today it is a national treasure and hard to believe it was at one time. We drove this one time in the 1980s and it was the best vacation we ever had.
To answer the matter of the hurricanes, if one were to come in we would receive rainfall although not the intensity that the people on the coast would. Ideally, the hurricane comes inland and swerves to the east and we would get the "clean" side of the hurricane moisture.
This was a common situation in Texas where we lived exactly 200 miles inland. While Galveston and Houston would be hit hard we would almost always receive some rainfall as a result. We personally never had any damage but just to the east on the "dirty side" of the hurricane we would see widespread tree downings and other damage. As these hurricanes come in from the Gulf they lose their intensity first turning into a tropical storm then a depression, etc., until it dissipates but they can carry moisture all the way nearly to Canada.
I just got interested in seeing what the forecasts were and found the surprising fact that this is about the latest that we have gone without a hurricane making landfall. As of yesterday there wasn't even a tropical storm or significant depression indicating one. Not exactly sure what to make of this; perhaps it has something to do with the climate change we are said to be having.
What is unusual is that we haven't had a drop of rain since August 14. Up to that time we had 31.30 inches of rain that I measured in my rain gauge. Typically we have about 3 inches in August and 4 inches in September. Normally, Hot Springs gets 56 inches of rain in an average year. Nationwide it is 36.5 inches. So this is unusual as is the very hot weather. I'm really getting very weary of it and ready to see it go away and return to normalcy.
I don't wish to see Arkansas experience the drought that drove us out of Texas in 2011. I had never planned on leaving there and we usually had more than sufficient rain. But it nearly drove me bonkers. I can remember 118 degrees in Dallas and 160 degrees on the pavement. That year I lost many mature oak trees even though I watered nearly 1 million gallons of water on the lawn and trees where we lived. I often say that was the year that "Texas burned down." I don't want the same for beautiful Arkansas.
Hey, I am not arguing with you on the severity of the drought or whether we would get any relief of feel the effects of a hurricane, I simply mentioned that because you brought the subject of a late hurricane up. I have lived in areas affected by hurricanes and so has my family. Two of our kids are in Florida. I too would love to see some rain, and yes, there seems to be none in the future. As for an unusually hot summer, I don't know about Hot Springs, but we are lucky to have had a pretty mild, overall summer, especially compared to the past 3 years. We have had a few days above normal, but certainly nothing like years past.
As for Dallas, I lived there 13 years, we had one summer (I am thinking about 1998) where we had no rain from about June 20th until late August and any number of days way above 100 degrees. I don't remember anything near 118, but certainly 110.
If I may opine about your situation it would be that I think the whole idea of preventing "cool burn" fires should be rethought. Where you really get into trouble is with the build-up of underbrush from putting out what would be normal fires that occur naturally. I remember visiting Yellowstone in 1974. There must have been four or five feet of underbrush of dead trees and assorted debris. When it went up in flames in 1988 it was, you may recall, a total disaster and took a long time to finally get under control. What made it all the worse was that the "hot burn" prevented the normal reforestation that occurs after a typical "cool burn. If I am not mistaken it is these types of burns that release the seeds from the tree cones. But in that instance everything was just killed off. We visited Yellowstone around 1995 and there was some recovery but will take two lifetimes to return to normal. There are some of the great forest fires that will leave scars on the land for decades before the forests recover. I can remember driving through Canada and seeing some of the historic fires 60 years prior and the forests had still not recovered. Not exactly sure how that would have been prevented.
Seems to me that there ought to be a national policy of burning off the underbrush to keep these fires from getting to the point where they leave permanent damage. There may be some movement in this direction because the total fire ban disrupted the normal "pruning" of the forests by nature that left the land around the trees largely free of this debris. The large pines, like the Ponderosa pines can take quite a bit of fire if it is the low intensity. If it is the super hot fires, then all bets are off. They will be killed off and to repopulate the forests from seedlings takes generations to accomplish.
If anyone is out east and can drive the Blueridge Parkway (some 600 miles long), there are photos along the way of the scarred landscape when it was devastated by bad land management. During the depression years this was one of the projects that restored the land. As anyone who has driven it today it is a national treasure and hard to believe it was at one time. We drove this one time in the 1980s and it was the best vacation we ever had.
You sure you're not a secret native Coloradan? You sure write like one.
Yes, those of us who are aware enough to be concerned about our forests are also highly aware of fire ecology, as well. But the major reason our forests are burning up the way they are now is due to the combined impact of warming and the resulting hoard of insect invasions such as pine beetle. These working in combination have killed our trees where they still stand. To a stranger's eye our forests may seem OK. They are not. The trees are dead and just don't know it yet. Then one afternoon there's a lightening strike from a passing storm cloud which vanishes without honoring any promise of badly needed rain. Thus, an entire forest is destroyed due to a cascade of inter-related events. Much discussion of this on the Colorado forum if you're interested. Probably not so applicable here. What we DO share in common is drought and dead trees. It is a great loss for both our states.
missourimule, I thought we were dry here in L.R. but I was in H.S. today and see what you are talking about. It has really changed since I was over there only a couple weeks ago.
Hey, I am not arguing with you on the severity of the drought or whether we would get any relief of feel the effects of a hurricane, I simply mentioned that because you brought the subject of a late hurricane up. I have lived in areas affected by hurricanes and so has my family. Two of our kids are in Florida. I too would love to see some rain, and yes, there seems to be none in the future. As for an unusually hot summer, I don't know about Hot Springs, but we are lucky to have had a pretty mild, overall summer, especially compared to the past 3 years. We have had a few days above normal, but certainly nothing like years past.
As for Dallas, I lived there 13 years, we had one summer (I am thinking about 1998) where we had no rain from about June 20th until late August and any number of days way above 100 degrees. I don't remember anything near 118, but certainly 110.
Actually I was in Plano in August, 2011 and the temperature gauge showed 118 degrees. It was incredibly miserable. Wildfires would just spontaneously erupt out of nowhere.
Texas is going to have to do something about their water situation or they will have a disaster on their hands as the population is expected to double by 2050. This is one solution proposed.
In 2011 I used to go over this lake and the levels were low then but I noticed a very unusual thing. The temperature would drop 2-3 degrees over the water and go back up when we got to land. If these water levels are not maintained there could be water rationing that would be heretofore unimaginable.
I've been tracking these temperatures and rainfall in Texas and Arkansas for about 12 years now and the data is alarming me. Something is clearly out of whack. In my opinion there is a solution to this situation but it would require an expenditure of perhaps 100's of billions of dollars to build. Such a system was proposed as far back as 1964 by then Governor John Connally.
These high pressure systems block out any possibility of moisture and just prolong the droughts and extremely high temperatures that I have not seen since the 1950s. But we had less than half the population in this country then and we didn't have the demands on our water supplies that we do now. People managed but we are spoiled and do not expect to become a third world country. We can do without a lot of things but one thing we cannot do without is water.
Actually I was in Plano in August, 2011 and the temperature gauge showed 118 degrees. It was incredibly miserable. Wildfires would just spontaneously erupt out of nowhere.
Texas is going to have to do something about their water situation or they will have a disaster on their hands as the population is expected to double by 2050. This is one solution proposed.
In 2011 I used to go over this lake and the levels were low then but I noticed a very unusual thing. The temperature would drop 2-3 degrees over the water and go back up when we got to land. If these water levels are not maintained there could be water rationing that would be heretofore unimaginable.
I've been tracking these temperatures and rainfall in Texas and Arkansas for about 12 years now and the data is alarming me. Something is clearly out of whack. In my opinion there is a solution to this situation but it would require an expenditure of perhaps 100's of billions of dollars to build. Such a system was proposed as far back as 1964 by then Governor John Connally.
These high pressure systems block out any possibility of moisture and just prolong the droughts and extremely high temperatures that I have not seen since the 1950s. But we had less than half the population in this country then and we didn't have the demands on our water supplies that we do now. People managed but we are spoiled and do not expect to become a third world country. We can do without a lot of things but one thing we cannot do without is water.
Thank goodness we were long gone by 2011. Our daughter and her husband were still in Dallas that year. They moved up here, permanently in 2012. I think you are missing my point though, I am not arguing about what year the temps were what, or if we have a problem: we all know we do, so does much of the country. How about NM? They are always dry, we know, but the past 5 years it has been almost no rain for them, not even a measurable drop or two. CA has had some horrible years as well. Here in AR, so have had some flood conditions off and on. 2008 was one of those. There is nothing any of us can do about it, except, if you believe in prayer, pray. Look at what happened to us up here before this latest drought. Many of us lost our gardens, of course the farmers were really hurt, we had too much rain, too fast.
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