Sunday, August 23, 2009

7.4 inches of rain........and praying

Our rainy season is from mid-June until the end of September. As you can figure out, that's only five weeks away! It needs to rain. About another 16 inches, at least. It's dry as a bone even though we've had more rain this week then we have in any other week since June.
The water line should be up to the top of the presa (reservoir) walls. It should be midway up those trees seen in the photo below. It isn't.
Last year by this time, it was overflowing the wall and I had my annual waterfall to watch coming down the canyon walls. All of this is down the hill, but just outside my house.

Now, when I lived in Houston, it was nothing for us to get 7-10" of rain. Heck, sometimes in an afternoon. I remember distinctly in 1979, when a tropical depression sat over Houston, we had 42 inches of rain in 24 hours. Boats were floating down the streets of Nassau Bay, south of Houston near NASA. Among other things. I don't want that. But I sure do pray that we get the rest of the rain that the farmers in this area need for their crops.

The aquifers have dropped thirteen feet in the last ten years, I'm told. Eighty percent of the water taken from the aquifers is for irrigation. And, according to experts, the rainfall we get now takes about eighty years to replenish the aquifers. It's a dire mess both for residents and farmers.

I NEVER thought in my life, after living in the tropics of Houston, that I would indeed be praying for rain. We were then, usually praying for it to stop. Times are a changing.
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2 comments:

Calypso said...

High up on our list of criteria for a place to live was WATER.

We have lots of it in Xico with no signs of it letting up.

Now if they can just learn to not pollute their water ways.

We actually had a smattering of rain here in Las Vegas yesterday - not sure what they pray for here? I have some suggestions...

Babs said...

Calypso - Deliverance