We’ve been in a state of drought for a long time. At least ten years. Maybe longer. It might be fifteen years by now. The years are slipping. This year hasn’t been quite as bad as last year because at least we got some snow. Not as much as we normally get, but some. Last year, we had mere inches where we normally had feet.
The drought broke the other day. I try not to worry about the water because we have a well and we are entirely dependent on the weather for all our water needs. I can only imagine how bad a farmer must feel when the rain doesn’t fall or falls at the wrong time. It must be terrifying.
It began to look like a storm was brewing many hours ahead of the actual storm. It had been thundering for hours with no rain. Apparently it was pouring in downtown Uxbridge just three miles north. When the wind came up, I figured the rain was finally going to fall. Sure enough, it did. As if the clouds were slashed open, sheets of rain poured down. The lights went out and the Wi-Fi went out. Sudden darkness and I had that momentary bit of wondering about where I put the matches.
Two or three minutes later, the lights were back. It took another half hour for the Wi-Fi to reboot. It was funny because with the Wi-Fi out, I could see every device our neighbors own. Who had which kind of iPhone, for example. Since I know everyone’s name, I could identify the location of each. There are only four houses close enough to appear on my server, so it isn’t complicated. I’m glad we don’t live in an apartment building!
I went to put some seeds out for the birds. It had cooled down by at least 30 degrees. This isn’t unusual weather for us. There is no “usual weather.” The first year I was up here (1988), by the end of April, it was 90 degrees and stayed in the 90s for two more months. You couldn’t buy an air conditioner and the little apartment I was renting was stifling. Good thing I was recently back from Israel. I didn’t mind the heat, though the humidity was bad.
This last heat wave was an airless heat. No breeze. Hot all day, hot all night. I think it’s called an inversion layer now, but then, it was just two months of triple H days and nights: hot, hazy, and humid. The sun never shone. it was gray all the time. That was my introduction to living in New England. Not what I expected.
Yet during this same period, we’ve had summers that were perfect. Comfortable, dry, sunny, warm, with just enough rain to keep the gardens green. We’ve had winters with 12 feet of snow followed by spring where it rained continuously through March as the snow melted. We flooded. So did all the towns nearby.
For the last ten years, we’ve had a variety of winters ranging from no snow to buried up to our chins. We haven’t had enough rain in a long time and the rivers have run almost completely dry. Some years, all you could see was the mud at the bottom. Not good fishing weather.
I’m pretty sure we had a summer last year, but I don’t remember it. We were indoors for all of 2020 and all the seasons seemed to be the same. Last summer was the worst. COVID was raging, the hospitals were full. Folks like us were being very careful. We didn’t know what the world would be like after the plague, but we wanted to at least be around to find out.
We made it. That’s the good news. The bad news? I’m not sure to what world we’ve made it.
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Categories: Anecdote, Blackstone Valley, Changing Seasons, Nature, New England, Photography
No amount of watering that we do seems to have the same happy effect on plants that rain has 🙂
Weather patterns everywhere has been so weird and unpredictable over these last few years that the strangeness has become the norm.
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This year, it was like plant growth was supercharged. I have never had the garden grow like this in less than a month. We had it completely cleaned out just a few weeks ago and now, you’d NEVER guess it was ever cleared. The weather has been weird and the growth of plants is weirder.
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I suppose it’s all the minerals from the air that rain water absorbs.
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We’ve lived here for more than 20 years and I’ve NEVER seen growth like this. It’s like living in a jungle. And where are all those plants coming from? There are a whole bunch I’ve never seen before. I have to assume they either blew here or the birds left them. But they aren’t local because I’ve never seen them in the woods or in any of the local fields. It is kind of strange.
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We sure live in strange times!
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Drought is the worst. I’m in Northern California and we’re really in trouble. Looks like fire season has already started.
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There have always been fires in northern California. They were a known “thing” 80 years ago. George R. Stewart wrote a book about them called “Fire.” Disney made it into a short movie, too. They have overbuilt an arid area and it’s hard to know how this will end in a good way. Too many buildings and people and electrical connections — and too little rain.
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LOVE THAT GLIDING SWING.
THE RAIN ELUDES US, TOO. OUR CALIFORNIA NATIVES MANAGE TO SURVIVE WITH SOME WATERING, ALTHOUGH WE DO HAVE SOME PLANTS THAT MANAGE TO PULL UP WATER FROM THE NEARBY RIVER AND DON’T SEEM TO NEED US TO HELP THEM. OUR JACARANDA TREE DOES THE SAME, AND OUR TREES IN THE BACK YARD THRIVE WITHOUT OUR DOING ANYTHING. BUT….I WANT SOME RAIN!
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It’s not just the plants. There’s a huge — or it least it WAS huge — aquifer that stretches from Arizona through New Mexico, most of Utah and Nevada into California. If it doesn’t rain, the aquifer has no water. Even though you probably don’t have wells but live on “city water,” the city water still comes from the same source — that underground river that flows through so many of the western states. Ultimately, if there’s no rain, should the aquifer dry out, there will be NO water.
I lived in Israel when the aquifer dried out. No matter how many warnings we gave (I worked at the Environmental Health Laboratory at the University of Jerusalem), no one listened. My boss (who has come back to the U.S. to live finally after spending more than forty years in Israel) (Dr. Hillel Shuval [you can look him up on the Internet] — probably not his original name) predicted we’d lose the aquifer by 1986, He was off by four years. The aquifer was dead by 1982. Arid regions — and all our western states fall into this category — have to be very, very careful about the way they treat the aquifer because once it is gone, it will never come back. ALSO, when it has been poisoned, usually by high nitrite fertilizers that leach into the soil — it’s useless. You can’t even use it to water crops.
Water is our most precious resource. You can do without a lot of other things, but without water, there’s no life. Not for crops, not for animals, not for people. Most people just don’t recognize how fragile our ecology is and how serious our North American drought is.
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My desert friendly plants (need very little water) in the front yard are looking a bit peckish these days. The gardener says they need water, but we’re in the middle of a serious draught and I’m afraid to use more water than minimally necessary. Bottom line: the plants will have to limp along until conditions are better.., whenever that may be?
BTW, It’s June 13 and we had a temperature of 110F today. they’re predicting between 115 and 120 over the next few days. Most of us will stay at home, like that’s so different from what we’ve been doing, right? Luckily stores stay open late (9pm – !0pm) so shopping for essentials can be done after sunset. Its’ hard to tell if we are surviving a really hot summer.., or just living in a pizza oven.., I’m offering 5 toppings, including pepperoni and pineapple (Hawaiian style). We don’t deliver!
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We had a week of nearly 100 degree weather, but thankfully, it broke. I remember it was that hot when we were there the first year. I love Arizona, but I’d never survive that heat. I would LOOK like a baked pizza. Without pineapple.
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Add the Pineapple, and I’d be tempted to nibble on a slice
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