Drought! More than half of U.S. counties "disaster zones"

[merithyn]

We're in the D3 - Extreme category. Our yard is thoroughly brown and dead. Weeds are still thriving, but the grass is a lost cause. I'm fairly certain that there's a ban on burning in our county at the moment. Storm systems keep moving through, but split before they get to us, heading north and south around us.

[Jaron]

Oh dear.

[Valmy]

Strange it has been relatively cool and wet here this summer.  You can see the disastrous drought conditions of last year starting to recede in Texas on that map.

Maybe we stole the Great Plains' rain.

That's good. You guys have had drought conditions for a few years before this, right?

We seemed to be coming out of it in 2010 but last year was the hottest and driest in the history of Texas and that is really saying something.  We are recovering a bit this year which is a Godsend I do not know what would have happened with a repeat.  It does have me thinking of what the State's long term plans are.  Our population is rapidly increasing and water resources are really being strained even without the drought.  The water question will be a big deal in the future.

[Valmy]

We're in the D3 - Extreme category. Our yard is thoroughly brown and dead. Weeds are still thriving, but the grass is a lost cause. I'm fairly certain that there's a ban on burning in our county at the moment. Storm systems keep moving through, but split before they get to us, heading north and south around us.

Yeah all of our yards died last year.  I was not about to waste water fighting a lost cause.  We had brutal fires, our church was hosting refugees from Bastrop last year.  Whew bad memories so glad we do not have any of that this year.

[Ideologue]

We're all doomed?

Not I.  It's quite nice here.  A little warm, but it rained yesterday, and the week before that, and the week before that, and like three or four times the week before that.

South Carolina: HYDROTANIA.

[katmai]

Until you are submerged by the melting ice caps

[Ideologue]

I'll just be beachfront, friend.

[Razgovory]

It's pretty bad here.  Every county in Missouri is a disaster area which means Farmers get federal money.

[Barrister]

Being back in Alberta...

as meant constant thunderstorms.  I can't count how many.  Which has also meant lots of moisture - mosquitoes have become something terrible.  But definitely no drought this year (unlike other years - I have a transcript of a small claims decision which revolved entirely around a drought and the vastly increasing value of bales of hay from 8-9 years ago).

[KRonn]

Strange it has been relatively cool and wet here this summer.  You can see the disastrous drought conditions of last year starting to recede in Texas on that map.

Maybe we stole the Great Plains' rain.

That's good. You guys have had drought conditions for a few years before this, right?

We seemed to be coming out of it in 2010 but last year was the hottest and driest in the history of Texas and that is really saying something.  We are recovering a bit this year which is a Godsend I do not know what would have happened with a repeat.  It does have me thinking of what the State's long term plans are.  Our population is rapidly increasing and water resources are really being strained even without the drought.  The water question will be a big deal in the future.

A few years ago, I think even before the drought, I read something about the underground aquifers in Texas, and that there were some concerns about how low the water levels were getting due to over use.