Things are getting scary in Arizona -- 135th day w/out rain in Phoenix

[smartvoter]

Weather is crazy everywhere -- even in the desert...

--------------------------------------
Arizona high country left without snowpack

Shaun McKinnon
The Arizona Republic
Mar. 2, 2006 09:26 PM


High in the San Francisco Peaks outside Flagstaff, in a small basin 10,000 feet above sea level, a survey team scouting for snow this week found just 4 inches where there should have been more than 50.

Four very lonely inches.

Almost everywhere else across the state's high country, the teams found nothing but dead leaves and parched pine trees on days that usually mark winter's peak, alarming new evidence that Arizona is in the throes of its driest winter on record, perhaps the driest in centuries.

How dry is it? At 29 of 34 snow measuring sites monitored by the U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service in Arizona, there was no snow Wednesday. That's the barest the survey sites have been going back to the earliest records in the late 1930s.

"Arizona is off the bottom of the charts," said Tom Pagano, a hydrologist for the service in Portland, Ore. "This year is unlike anything we've ever seen before."

Snowpack is critical for Arizona's water supplies, feeding the streams and reservoirs that supply Phoenix, Flagstaff and dozens of other communities. Those reservoirs have been buffeted by a regional drought entering its 11th year, a stretch punctuated four years ago by what many scientists thought was the driest year ever.

"We were all thinking that 2002 had been a once-in-a-lifetime event, that it would never happen again," Pagano said. "So far, this year is worse than 2002."

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0302drought-nosnow-ON.html

In Phoenix, we are entering our record 135th day without rain. The previous record was across 1999-2000 at 101 days.

[Erika]

1. Yes part of my family live there

But just remember global warming is junk science and W won't go there for that reason.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

2. I left AZ 14 years ago after the 120degree heat wave...

explosion in Meth, and the cockroaches sprouting wings.

*shudder* still gives me nightmares.

[katinmn]

14. Jeepers!

That would freak me out, too!:scared:

I guess it's not so bad here after all. Cold, no sun, ice on the sidewalks for months and months. But no damn flying cockroaches.

[0rganism]

63. "cockroaches sprouting wings"

Aren't those called "locusts"? Perhaps Arizona is due for some biblical wrath.

[jillan]

68. Nope - they are cockroaches.

Red ones. Was sitting here watching tv on nite and something flew across the room.
"What the hell was that?!" Sure enough, a flying cockroach.

ew ew ew

[Lone_Star_Dem]

3. We're also in a drought, but not nearly that bad

I actually heard a weather person say that they thought that the previous 50+ years of data were overly cool and wet for the region, and that this is not hot and dry but normal. How's that for sticking ones head in the sand?

[az chela]

4. I live in Prescott

We had a little rain the other day but it has been 134 days of no rain.We are surrounded my forests and it is getting damn scary.

[titoresque]

5. I live in Az.

Look up. This is what I think is causing our drought.....among other things. Call me tin-foil, I don't much care. :hi:

http://www.anomalies-unlimited.com/Chemtrail_101.html

[titoresque]

6. Also....

I've seen these chemtrails stop in mid air, like cutting a straight line where the "scrape" stops......without changing altitude. A couple minutes later the "scrape" starts back up again. My mother has taken alot of pics when we're being sprayed in grid and X patterns. By the end of the day it looks like the Valley is blanketed with a thick white haze.

[Higans]

12. That is extreamly interesting.

Do Chem-Busters such as this one work:

http://educate-yourself.org/ct/goodbyects10jan02.shtml

[titoresque]

16. I'm not sure.

But thanks for the link! I'm going to read up on this.
:hi:

[Roland99]

20. CHEMtrails?? Heh heh...thanks for the laugh

CONtrails, sure...but CHEMtrails?


ooof

[kestrel91316]

22. Sure, don't YOU know all about chemtrails?

You know, the stuff the government is spraying out of planes to do (fill in the blank) to people without them knowing.........you can get up to speed with a google search of chemtrails, or check out George Noory's Coast-to-Coast AM shows on AM radio, lol.

Edit: I guess the radio waves out of TV's weren't doing the job very well..........

[titoresque]

26. I doubt you even know

much about Chemtrails. Perhaps you don't live in a state where its common to see an X "marks the spot" in the sky right before a grid patterns begins.......which by the way only takes a couple of hours to cover this entire valley. Maybe you've never seen two planes at the same altitude, fairly close to eachother and one is spraying a thick line of Chemtrail that doesnt dissipate for hours and the other plane is scraping a small thin line (Contrail) that dissipates almost immediately. I HAVE. But I'll agree with you about George Noory.

[Roland99]

30. Two planes can appear very close together but be 10,000ft (2 miles)

apart. That can be a big difference in temperature/moisture content in the air.

[titoresque]

31. Seriously read a little more about Chemtrails

before you're so quick to don me and Tens of thousands of other people
including very reputable scientists and experts in their field with a tinfoil hat, do some research. Heres a start for you. http://www.anomalies-unlimited.com/Chemtrail_101.html
After that I would encourage you to start observing for yourself.
If you live in Texas, you're in luck, you won't see much. If you live in New Mexico or Arizona you'll see plenty. As for other areas, I havent personally witnessed these CHEMTRAILS but I'm sure you can google search your area. Or you can always just laugh me off and go about your merry way.

[Roland99]

32. Oh, I've read many sites on CHEMtrails. Each one has me LMAO

WAY too much tinfoil for me.

[titoresque]

33. Ok

:hi:

[Castilleja]

64. I have seen these, and live in Texas

Over the last month or so, I have seen several of these huge X marks. Also, have seen the spreading trails. I have not noticed too many perfect looking X's before, just crosshatching. It is interesting, for sure.

[SidDithers]

43. How can you tell they're at the same altitude from the ground?...

Sid

[ProfessorGAC]

47. Answer: You Can't

See how easy that was? (I knew that you already knew the answer.)
The Professor

[SidDithers]

50. Cheers, Professor...

:toast:

Sid

[Roland99]

29. Yeah, that stuff cracks me up. Now, there *is* something to CONtrails

After 9/11, seems I recall NASA taking some satellite photos (or was it NWS or someone?) as the skies were very clear as there were no vapor trails from aircraft.

But, I don't know how much they affect weather.

I believe warming is more from the ever-expanding use of concrete and asphalt replacing grass and trees. Phoenix, for example, has risen over 10F in the last 40 years due to the urban expansion.

Putting rooftop gardens on buildings would help a bit but containing urban sprawl would probably do just as much if not more good.



But CHEMtrails?


Oy vey.

[SidDithers]

46. Wait, I thought chemtrails persisted and then turned into clouds...

If you're in a drought, don't you want clouds, and any rain that might go with the clouds?

Sid

[ProfessorGAC]

48. Stop Making Sense, Sid

The Professor

[sleipnir]

7. The Sahara used to be one of the most fertile places in Africa..now..

Climate does change, regardless of human input, but we are only speeding up the changes, sadly.

[pitohui]

18. sahara desert is human created actually

at least that is what i was taught in school some mumble-mumble decades ago

[Bandit]

25. And you know for a fact that no human activity caused the change

in Africa. They are saying the Sphinx is much older than first believed and the erosion on it is due to water not wind. Some people believe there was an advanced society over twenty thousand years ago. Possibly much more so than today even. :shrug: Who knows what all mankind has been guilty of.

[obxhead]

8. AZ is finally returning to normal....

From what I've read they have had excess rainfall/snowfall in the area for the last 50 years.

I'm very sorry for the people of the area, but they have been living on "borrowed" water for quite some time. :(

[Strelnikov_]

56. Maybe We Could Ask The Anasazi . . . . Woops n/t

[Warpy]

9. Driest 3 month winter period in history in New Mexico

Little to no snowpack here, either.

Farmers south of Elephant Butte Lake (south central) will have only 50% of their allotted irrigation water.

It's going to be another year when even the weeds won't grow.

[oasis]

11. I was in a cafe in Las Cruces this a.m. and a woman in the next booth was

going ballistic about Bush ignoring global warming.

[phusion]

51. Yes, but a great chile season hopefully. ;)

[madmark]

10. the air here is shitty as hell from the lack of rain

[Obamarama]

13. Better get used to it, unfortunately. eot

[HereSince1628]

15. Sort of wondering what the cost of bringing water to desert cities is

per person compared to the cost of building levees in N.O. Orleans so the entire city can be reoccupied.

[pitohui]

19. why?

so we can pit ourselves against ea. other fighting over scraps?

[pitohui]

17. i thought it only rained in july and august in arizona

maybe give it a little more time?

[Roland99]

21. I believe Feb/Mar are the typical "monsoon" seasons.

AZ residents correct me if I'm wrong.

[pitohui]

27. ah okay

i was there for a very memorable flood in july and for some reason i had those dates in my mind for the monsoon, i guess i just got lucky

it rains everywhere i go except, like any prophet in his own country, i can't break any droughts in louisiana, but invite me to arizona sometime i'll make it rain! :-)

[Whoa_Nelly]

53. Monsoon season is typically July-August

And can start as early as June and as late as August. The monsoon storm season is considered to have started when there are three consecutive days of monsoon type weather, from wind storms to thunderstorms.

[Roland99]

55. Really? hmm...

back in 1999 I visited a friend down there and I remember it being hot and dry and later that year it seems she told me the "monsoon" season was like late fall or late winter.

[Whoa_Nelly]

57. Have lived in Tucson many times over several years each

Also, if you look it up on the Internet, you will find out what I just wrote about it to be true :hi:

There can be a rainy time in the late winter, but the monsoon season is in the July-August time frame. The T-storms are some of the most awesome have ever been in...and I grew up in tornado ally in Oklahoma.

[NMDemDist2]

66. "monsoon type weather" = humidity above 55% n/t

[NMDemDist2]

65. the Sonoran desert has two rainy seasons, one is the Monsoon in

July-Sept and then there is a regular "winter" season usually Nov-Feb

which is why it is one of the most bio-diverse eco-climes on the planet and why you only see the Saguaro cactus in the Southwest, they don't grow or survive anywhere else.

[TahitiNut]

34. April, May, and June are the DRY months. August and December are wet.

Phoenix Precipitation Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Precipitation (inches) 0.7 0.7 0.9 0.2 0.1 0.1 0.8 1.0 0.9 0.7 0.7 1.0


In effect, the "wet" season runs from July through March ... which is why the concerns are making the news. We're looking at a record-breaking dry spell just as the "dry season" is coming up.

http://www.climate-zone.com/climate/united-states/arizona/phoenix/

[KittyWampus]

23. Guess all those lawns and golf courses in AZ are drying up?

I live on eastern Long Island where wealthy assholes build houses on dunes and then proceed to grow sod lawns with sprinkler systems and everything.

Sigh.

[Retrograde]

35. xeriscaping seems to be catching on

the last time I was in Phoenix, about a year ago, I noticed a lot fewer green lawns and a lot more desert-inspired landscaping. At least some people are getting the message.

Now if they'd just stop trying to air-condition the outside....(an entirely too large number of places have misters outdoors which they use for evaporative cooling)

[smartvoter]

36. My neighbor across the street hoses down his driveway and sidewalk

to clean them three times a week. Drives me nuts...

[KharmaTrain]

24. Rain Showers On Tucson on Wednesday

I'm here watching spring training in Tucson. They said it hadn't rained here in over 130 days until Wednesday when there was a steady light rain in the afternoon. For those of us from the northern climes, it was just another annoying little rain shower messing up our baseball and sunshine, but the locals were all but dancing for joy.

Where's a good rainman when you need one?

[ksilvas]

28. I hear ya, I'm in Tucson.

I've only lived here 6 years but it has gotten
drier and drier every year.
When I moved here in 1999 there was snow on the Santa Catalina's all winter,
but the last two years, no snow.
My creosote bush is drying out.
I'm moving in two months, gettin the hell out of
here before this summer hits, in all it's furnace like glory.

[Beelzebud]

37. Our environment is fine! Move along! Nothing to see here!

[harpo]

38. Yes, that's a fine area for drilling for natural gas, no people in the way

[triguy46]

39. They aren't the only ones.

The period from Nov. 1 to March 1 has been the dryest four month period in the state of OK. Dryer than dust bowl.

[leftofthedial]

40. Ours wouldn't be the first civilization killed by drought in Arizona

[Patiod]

49. Excellent point, lotd!

Some areas aren't really supportive of human habitation (I'm thinking of the Los Angeles basin as well..)

[newspeak]

41. I was raised in Phoenix in the fifties and sixties

when we only had swamp coolers--most people did not have swimming pools, instead you went to the local public pool. My grandmother (step) came to Phoenix as a little girl and back then water was carefully rationed. You irrigated your lawn once a week (if you had grass), clothes were to be washed on a certain day and bathes were taken I believe, three times a week. I flew over Phoenix in the eighties and couldn't believe how many homes had swimming pools. Frank Lloyd Wright was one of many people who attempted to get people to plant indigenous plants like Cactus, instead of bringing in foreign plants that needed more water. Snowbirds coming from other areas would bring plants to Phoenix that they were more familiar with--the visionaries new that the increase in watering would aid in making the arid air turn humid. Phoenix is now more humid than when I was a child and I doubt many people have swamp coolers now.

[MountainMama]

42. Actually.....

a lot of people have "piggyback" systems....part swamp cooler, part A/C. You use the swamp cooler part when it's warm in the spring. Then when the heat really gets cookin', you switch to A/C.

I just love how no one anywhere is talking about conserving water or anything.

I moved here from the mid-Atlantic (check the handle) to be with my boyfriend and I have pretty much talked him into moving back east in a few years. The sprawl and the eventual water crisis, IMHO, are going to really make this place unlivable in a few years.

"Winter" here can be kind of wet, spring is bone dry and so is summer until around the end of July when it's "monsoon" season. We didn't have any kind of winter here at all and now it's March. Who knows if it's ever going to rain again.

[girl gone mad]

54. I've read that Phoebnix has one of the hottest RE markets going.

I'm not sure what people are thinking. It makes about as much sense to me as the Las Vegas market. For the long term, these areas are simply not sustainable as major centers of development.

I've been to Flagstaff in the summer. I saw hundreds of unoccupied mansions in the hills. The people who can afford it get the hell out of there in the hot season. Can't say I blame them. We couldn't do anything after 10:30 in the morning because it was just too darn miserable - and I'm from Texas and I like heat.

[lonestarnot]

44. I have a swamper and turned it on at the beginning of summer

and used ac twice last year. Raised on it, heat doesn't bother me, but dying of thirst will.

[politicat]

45. So is the Valley going to be rationing water this summer?

Why does a big part of me think No?

There are a lot of Coloradans who think we should just dam off the Colorado River until you all figure out that you can't have 1 swimming pool per 3 people, 18 holes of grassy golf and half an acre of bluegrass lawn in the middle of the desert.

I guess once again we'll save the desert's bacon; our snowpack is 168% of normal and likely to kit 200% by May, when it starts melting.

[SpiralHawk]

52. Send a few snowflakes south

New Mexico is totally parched, with record-breaking low rain and snowfall

Fire conditions in the north -- say Santa Fe on up to CO -- are described as Potentially Catastrophic

Thousands upon thousands of acres of dead pinon ready to torch up scorching hot -- their deaths the result of ongoing drought and bark beetles

It's going to be a wild spring and summer

Pray for rain

[politicat]

62. The Front Range is dry as a bone....

two big storms since October. Everything's getting caught up in the mountains. You'll get it eventually as runoff, but we in the foothills are in the same position.

Your weather usually comes from the Gulf of Mexico, doesn't it?

[Xithras]

58. Geologists have been saying for decades that it's cyclical down there.

Nobody would listen. I remember reading 20 years ago about how geologists and climatologists had figured out that the desert southwest cycles back adn forth between wet and dry periods, and that some of those dry periods could last for centuries. Even back then there was a realization that the southwest had been settled during one of the regions "wet" periods, and that there would be problems when the area started drying up again. Of course, few people paid much attention back then because hardly anybody lived in the southwestern states anyway.

Much has changed over the past twenty years, but the fact that the area WILL dry up again hasn't.

[D_Master]

59. Here in Indiana

We normally get about 80 in. of snow a year and it has only snowed about twice of any accumulation since Dec. and we had the warmest Jan. ever.

[AzDar]

60. The weather here right now is absolutely gorgeous, too . Problem is,

everytime I go outside to enjoy it, I get a bastard of a headache.
Hubby( a Phoenix native) thinks the whole place will be uninhabited 100 years from now...

[NMDemDist2]

67. it's the smog. no rain means the particulates are just hanging in the air

it's giving everybody's sinus' fits!

[banana republican]

61. I'll Call Your Arizona & Raise it by one Seattle (~100 days of rain) n/t

[jillan]

69. More scarier than the lack of rain in Az }}}}}

*John McCain

*Jon Kyl

* and Christian radio replaced AAR 3/01

[Horse with no Name]

70. I grew up in AZ

and remember the very first person that I knew that had what we called "refrigerated air".
It was rare, most of us used swamp coolers.
Our house--which was in Buckeye--had a swamp cooler, our own well, and we didn't even have heat in our house.
On those rare mornings it was cool, my mom opened up the oven and warmed up the house.
I don't ever remember being uncomfortable, of course, we also slept with our windows open in the Spring and Summer and sat around with blankets on cool nights.
We irrigated our yard and our alfalfa field twice a month--and paid per foot of water from the canal (if I am not mistaken).
We had quite a few trees in our front yard and my dad planted diacondera which rarely needed mowed, but made a beautiful lawn.
We had livestock and had huge water troughs. My Dad put fish in them to keep the water clean so we wouldn't have to empty it to clean it.
Conservation was a huge topic back then.
Now, if I remember correctly...that was back in the mid-to-late 70's...let me remember who was President...

[jillan]

71. All of you from Az - please check into our State group.

Not only are there some great discussions there,
there is also some activism.
We've got alot of work to do this year - keep Janet and
get rid of Vyl-Kyl.