This is actually not too bad.
It shows improvement for Central to North Texas starting in June through August. It claims it could be an average to above average summer rainfall.
I hope that is true. Sadly, it shows that drought will increase for South Texas. Yikes!!!!
I certainly hope not.
http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/expert_assessment/seasonal_drought.html
NOAA Drought Predictions
I hope its true and hope some moisture makes it was south this summer too.
C
I'm concerned that we will be prevented from watering in our MUD. Wait a minute!!! Excuse me, I'm headed out to mulch again.
We are in mandatory water restrictions. Even worse we usually have a lot of rain and we are getting none. All my raised beds are set up to drain because of the amount of rain we usually get. I'm now watering by hand once and sometimes twice a day because of the weather in the nineties.
I have to leave for a week in june and I'm not sure how to even keep my plants alive.
Saturate your bed and then put old buckets with water in them by the plants. Usually you want to bury the buckets a few inches deep with small holes in the bottom or side. It should take a few days for them to drain if the bed is saturated when you leave.
This message was edited May 27, 2011 7:44 PM
Sounds like a good plan, thanks.
Unfortunately, I'm at a point where I won't even look at the weather in hopes of not keeping my hopes up. We started Stage 2 water restictions today, and without the hope of rain, we may begin Stage 3 water restictions in 2 or so weeks.
I hate the idea of hoping for a tropical event on the South Texas gulf in hopes of us getting some real rain this year. It has been bad!
Well on the radio this morning in Houston there is a tight cluster of storms east of Florida. They said it may cross over Florida into the gulf and by Monday or Tuesday hit SW Louisiana or the upper coast of Texas....Guess where I live....Hurricane season started today and so did the activity.
I am also hoping it doesn't take a storm to break this dry spell. We haven't had any amount of rain in 6 months. This is the first yr my St Augustine has huge areas of dead. If it wasn't for weeds there would not be any green.
We were lucky to get a couple of inches during some thunderstorms, of course the south side of town got baseball size hail (I only got quarter sized). But last Sat. was 111 degrees! To have hundred degree weather this time of year makes me fear July and Aug. Plants I planted in April are struggleing just to survive. The only good thing was that last summer's rains filled the lakes here, so at least we can water.
Wow 111 degrees. How awful and hail that size. I hope I can keep plants alive also.
We really are looking at some scary weather. The problem I am having is with this severe boom and bust. The bust seems a lot longer than the boom. It is normal for Texas weather to do that but not to these extremes. I have some old time farmers that tell me this is normal but less than 4 inches in eight months isnt normal. When you are breaking all time records from the 1800's every other year, that isnt normal. The 1950's were a real b*tch and if we are experiencing that again, I hope we are in the tail end.
That being said, I am hoping for a nice tropical storm. Not even a Cat 1.
Newest NOAA drought prediction came out.
It increases the range of what they believe to improve.
They believe it will be a wet summer for Texas but nothing huge.
Bring it on already!!
http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/expert_assessment/seasonal_drought.html
When I think of Texas weather, I can't decide if its a drought interrupted by floods or floods interrupted by drought. It seems like its one extreme or the other. I'm glad to see there is at least a chance of wetter weather.
Oh Great I am in the area that is predicted to persist or intensify....:o( I am happy for the rest who are looking to see rain.
Hey, I'll take some improvement!
Before Stage One water restictions, I noticed that the San Antonio Water System didn't have any information on what Stage 4 water restrictions would look like. As we get closer and closer to Stage 3 - I think they better figure it out soon.
I also worry about what a non-existent Stage 5 might look like. No, I don't really want to go there! But I have been spending more time in the Cactus and Succlent forum the last few days, as some plants I've had for years seem to be dying this year - it may be coincidence...
I have had a red maple over 10 yrs. I didn't have a faucet on that side of my house till today. But it is too late It is totally dead. I don't understand as my Oleanders are alive and so is the Crepe Myrtle.
http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/expert_assessment/seasonal_drought.html
And a complete flip flop from the previous map.
The new one shows drought intensifying in most of Texas.
In other news, I burst into flames in my front yard today while watering my plants.
Wow that is a complete flip to the opposite. Bet they really don't know.
I think we all need fire extinguishers for the yard. I hope you survive the flames.
A 3 month prediction and they change 2 weeks into it...nice.
Here's my irrigation pond. It's about 3' low. The lowest I've ever seen it was at 2' that was at the END of a long hot summer. I'm putting myself on water restriction and allowing much of the flower beds to die. Just keeping enough alive that I can propagate and rebuild later, sigh.
Take a bucket into the shower with you and use it to water some of your pots.
Although I'd like to believe the first NOAA map - the one that showed improvement for our area - was the right one. I'm believing the consistent drought one is actually more accurate. I'm not even watching the weather until September, because I already know what it will be.
98-103 degrees
0% chance of percipitation
gusty winds
I'm surprised we still have gusty winds, though. Generally, by this time they've all but died - making the summer even more unbearable.
I was noticing today while watering the yard the wind that we never have. It was nicer than without it. The first map said it would worsen here now says will improve but I severely drought it. (yes I couldn't help myself :o) )
My mom and dad lived through the drought years of the 30's and 50's. I've got this bad feeling that we might be looking at something like that again. I was in Lubbock recently watching the farmers plowing and planting fields of cotton that everyone knows won't make (this is required by insurance). The wind picked up the sandy soil exposed by the plowing and I couldn't help but think of the Dust Bowl days. I wondered if this was how it started. I hope I'm just being pessemistic. Guess all we can do is pray for rain.
You have everything Cocoa. I saw an old cistern in one of your son's pictures. You are ready for sh*t to hit the fan.
The dustbowl days were also caused by poor farming techniques and no cover crops. Every farmer does cover crops here so we wont have that problem.
The 1950's drought was bad and lasted 7 years straight with a few wet springs but not much else. I gotta feeling since we have been in drought more than not in the last 12 years and we have to be on the tail end of it.
In a weird way, I am glad the droughts were able to teach me what fruit trees and plants to grow. When we do get back into a normal pattern for a few years, my yard and orchard will be looking really good. I am confident my trees have sent down some deep roots to stay alive during all of this with minimal water.
Could you imagine 2-3 years with average rainfall?
I wouldnt know what to do with myself.
Rampbrat, so much of what I see lately reminds me of the depression. I have some memoirs of my great grandmother's brother (not sure what that makes him.lol) They grew up in a farming community outside of Lubbock during the dustbowl. He hesitantly writes that he wasn't much of an expert in 'depression', because it seemed everyone was in the same boat and looking back really only remembered everyone helping out and managing the best they could. One memory was of my great-great grandfather taking a shotgun out on Christmas eve, shooting it off and coming back in, saying "Santa committed suicide". They seem to keep their sense of humor..warped as it was.lol
Juju, I wish. We looked at reviving the cisterns. Lots of problems there, they were part of the well house (now chicken coop). We are now on city water and the city says we are not allowed to go back to well water. I disagree... no mater who's right...it's going to take a lawyer to sort it out. I just don't have the battle in me, at the moment. I am grateful for the pond!
You should look into a metal cistern. You can get over 1/2 a gallon for every square foot of roofspace. We have around 1400 feet of roof so we get 800 gallons for every inch. The plants really like the water. They look good too.
This is a winter picture.
This message was edited Jun 17, 2011 8:27 AM
I love the looks of that, especially with the tin roof!
I don't want to live in our house 10-15 years from now, our future home will more features like that.
We have another cistern that looks like that one, much, much older. The bottom has rusted out. I'm trying to convince Dh into converting into another chicken coop or smokehouse.
Yippee!!!!
2-3 inches at the house and orchard.
Yippee, indeed! Looks like a good deal of the eastern half of Texas got rain yesterday or early this morning. I got an inch, so I'm thrilled. As are the lawn and the plants. :-)
Carla
Yah!! We got just over 2 inches. Slow, soaking, lovely wet rain.
Now for the humidity that follows with the sun on ful...
More rain! This morning I was just getting ready to step out the door to take the dog to the dog park, and it started raining buckets! Nice.
Jujube - is that an 800-gallon cistern or is it larger?* I currently have a 400-gallon cistern behind the garage, two 75-gallon rain barrels, and one 40-gallon rain barrel. Even so, they weren't enough to keep my veggie garden watered, so I had to resort to dragging the hose to the back of the garage to water.
I have another 400-gallon cistern on order (it should be ready sometime within the next week), but what good does it do me if there's no rain? Of course, by now the veggie garden is just about on its last legs, so there will be few things I'll need to water on a daily basis.
I'm planning on getting a 300-gallon cistern in February and having two 30" X 60" cisterns custom-made sometime this fall - when I can afford them. The 300-gallon will go in front of the garage on the driveway, and the two 60" tall ones will go behind the house where I currently have the two 75-gallon rain barrels. I'm not sure how much the 60" tall ones will hold, but I'm guessing at least 125 gallons each. I'll link them like I've got the rain barrels linked. The one place where I really wish I could put a cistern is at the front of the house, but there's no room for one. When it does rain, the water just shoots off the roof and over the gutters, then it makes its way towards the side of the house, where the lay of the land is lower than the front yard. Every time we get a good rain, that area floods - even if it's only temporary. There'll be 5-6 inches of standing water anywhere from a few hours to a couple of days - depending upon how saturated the soil is. I can't plant anything in that area - I have about 7 varieties of citrus there but every one of them is in a pot (and they're sitting on a raised bed). Ideally, I'd love to be able to put in a buried cistern, but the husband just thinks I'm crazy. heh
TMK, we have yet to be rationed. But if this drought keeps up, I'm sure that day is coming. I'd been hand-watering everything until we had the most recent rain. I should start again - everything is drying up again. But it takes me about 5-6 hours to hand-water front and back yards plus the garden beds. I usually do it very late at night, front yard one night, back yard the next, but sometimes I do both all in one shot. In which case I'll start watering around 7:00 p.m. and won't finish up until around 1:00 a.m. But I've been known to be out there watering at 4:00 a.m., too! LOL (The neighbors must think I'm nuts!)
It's not so much that I want to keep the grass alive. I really think grass is a waste. But if I don't water and keep the soil moist, there's a good chance that the slab will at least shift, if not crack altogether. I'd rather spend a little bit more on water than $20K to have the slab fixed. Also, I have an oak tree in front and one in back. Years ago I was told that each one sucks up about 60 gallons of water a day. If they can't get water from the soil, where's the next best place to find it? Sewer lines. I don't need/want to be paying someone to re-do our sewer lines because of tree roots. (That's part of the problem of living in a subdivision where trees tend to be planted closer to the houses than they should have been.) So, I'll just keep watering until I'm told I can't.
A few tidbits of info: 1.) Any purchases made to harvest rainwater are tax exempt. (No state sales taxes will be charged.) So even if you buy just a rain barrel at Home Depot, make sure they don't charge you any tax! 2.) If you live in a subdivision or have an HOA, they cannot cite you for any rainwater harvesting items just because someone doesn't like the looks of it. e.g., You could put a 1200-gallon cistern on your front lawn and as long as it's actually collecting rainwater (or set up to collect it), no one can b*tch about it. Well, let me re-phrase that. They can b*tch, but they can't make you remove it. State law.
*And is it from TMC?
Mine is a 2000 gallon cistern. I have all the gutter pipes meet up under the house and feed to the backyard where the cistern is located. It was a really good deal. I think I paid around 975.00 for it at Texas Metal Cisterns.
I have done side by side comparisons with rainwater vs. tap water with startling results. Plants really dislike tap water. I put it on a small stand for better water pressure.