It is ironic that, as much of the East struggles to deal with the magnitude of the flooding occurring in the wake of Hurricane Irene, much of the South and Southeast, including the town of Tallassee, Alabama, are in drought conditions. In Texas, the drought is particularly bad. According to the U.S. Drought Monitor , as of August 2, 2011, most of Texas was in a state of exceptional drought. Houston, Texas has received a total of 5.9″ of rain so far for the entire year. That total is 20.04″ below the normal rainfall total. (Houston Rainfall Deficits.)
Many areas in the Southeast, including Tallassee, also have entered moderate to exceptional drought conditions. In July, nationwide, the largest national footprint for exceptional drought in the 12-year history of the U.S. Drought Monitor was reached. At that time, about 32 percent of the contiguous 48 states were experiencing drought conditions ranging from moderate to exceptional.
Our little town is no exception. Located in an area that was identified as having “moderate drought conditions” as of August 2, 2011, our condition certainly has not improved as the month has progressed. As the Weather Channel shows, the total rainfall so far for the month of August in Tallassee is 1.39″. Our monthly average is normally 3.32″.
While all of these statistics are interesting, nothing brings home to me the lack of rain as much as the grass in our front and back yard and the rosebushes surrounding our home. Day by day, you can see the grass turn a little bit more yellow, and a few more rose leaves fall due to lack of rain. Even the grass lawns sloping down to the local lake, Lake Talisi, are failing to thrive.
At our house, we finally broke down and put the sprinkler out; that worked pretty well until the night we forgot to turn it off, and increased our water bill by 50% in doing so. At least the grass and bushes in that area of the yard looked really happy for a week. I am hoping for a fairly wet September, except for Friday nights and Saturdays for high school and college football games. Not even the weather should be allowed to interrupt football, a passion in this state. The drive toward a wetter September appears to be beginning Labor Day weekend. During that weekend, our chances for rain improve just a bit; it sure would be a relief to get some!