In NM we have this thing that people call the "100 year drought" where every 100 years there is a period of extended precipitation decline, followed by flooding. From what I understand, we're right in the middle of it. I mean, most of NM and AZ are desert anyway-- isn't that what deserts are characterized by? Low annual precipitation? It is a problem because of increased population and (thereby) strains on our aquifer... Before long we'll be rationing our water even more strictly than we do now (currently, our water restrictions are limited to when and how much we can water our yards). Oh well, c'est la vis. That's what I get for living in a desert.

Well at least the most wooded areas of my state look better than last year. All we can hope for is a couple of tropical depressions along the lower coast.

Here in Colorado where I live, we had a near-average snow season going through mid-February, and then we went 5-6 weeks with zero snowfall and almost every day record high temperatures, and as a result our seasonal snowfall was only about 60% of normal, which means most likely that we will see urban water rationing and some agricultural water shortages toward the end of Summer. At least we have some runoff to talk about, and because our lower mountain elevations did get good snowfall earlier in the season, the most extreme fire danger may be postponed until later in the Summer here too.

I was up in New Hampshire visiting relatives in late March, and several longtime locals there anxiously asked me about our own seasonal snowfall this Winter, and also told me that their part of southern New Hampshire had only received about 20% of their average annual snowfall too. The locals in southern New Hampshire were a bit worried about the potential for forest fires there later this Summer too. Indeed, the week that we were there, from March 18th to the 25th, every day the high temperature was in the 70s when there should have still been a foot or two of snow on the ground, and the record warmth there wiped-out the maple syrup harvest too.

And, Colorado and the New England region were not the only places to suffer from low snowfall and abnormally high temperatures this Winter either. In fact, the only place in America that got more snow or rain than their recent historical average was the Pacific northwest. Perhaps we have been getting lied to about the severity of global climate change, and/or we are going to have to get used to getting by on a whole lot less water (and food too) here really soon.

Big storms, no storms...its all the same! This global climate change will never end man!

It won't? Just ask T-Rex.

Old Timer, if you've been listening to scientists you have not been lied to. If you listen to big business or their whores collectively known as the GOP, Faux News, Mitt Romney, the mindless GOP trolls with their tin foil hats that infest these pages, then yes, you've been lied to.

Eric- Great post!! I wonder if all their money can save them??? I bet Mitt will say "If elected, I will cure the problem"

Yes, D Russ and Eric. The same lies that Obama told us? He said he would have the budget balanced by the end of his 4 year term and instead he went on a spending spree with tax payer money. Yadayadayada, keep talking, spouting a bunch of lies. Isn't curing the problem what Obama said to Joe the Plumber, "I will personally make sure you have money to start your own business.....you mean MY money, tax payer money. Open your eyes and read real news and I don't mean from any of the cable news networks. Seek and you shall find.

Old Timer, if you've been listening to scientists you have not been lied to. If you listen to big business or their whores collectively known as the GOP, Faux News, Mitt Romney, the mindless GOP trolls with their tin foil hats that infest these pages, then yes, you've been lied to.

I listen to O'bama man! He says he gonna lower the seas!

Great News for Texans, They really like everything big in Texass so hopefully they will like this big Hot weather this summer with no water, yeehaww , Move along folks nothing to see here, I only wish we could take a census of who believes in climate change and who doesn't, and put there names on the list, and the ones who don't believe get to go to the back of the water line.

I'm from NM, if you don't like the desert then move. Lawns are a waste of water & squander precious resources. Use native plants that can handle drought conditions. NM is sacred land to us, learn to live with her. I live in the NE now by family commitment, but miss the desert dearly. Re-post, posted in wrong place 1st time!

Most of the Southwest as well as parts of California and the Southeast can expect drought conditions to worsen through July, federal forecasters said Thursday

Good news guys, federal forecasters are NEVER right! I would put all my furniture up on blocks...

, Move along folks nothing to see here, I only wish we could take a census of who believes in climate change and who doesn't, and put there names on the list, and the ones who don't believe get to go to the back of the water line.

As long as you stop using our gas, its a deal! I have plenty of bottled water in refined oil product containers!

In the event of monetary loss in the event of the drought I can bet those "covservative" states line up for Federal Disaster Relief while complaining about anyone else receiving aid in any form. As always they lead the Blue States in feeding at the trough and the states take back more than they pay in.

I worked outside during several La Nina years and still got drenched every day at work (in Washington State), it has been over 60 degrees and clear there for the past two weeks (according to friends and relatives - I moved to AZ 11 years ago due to the rain induced arthritis I got up there), that never happened in April (showers bring May flowers) when I lived there.

STEXAN; another one with a big mouth and a sure-fire opinion, although most Texans are good people. So you expect scientits to know EVERYTHING? These people are honest enough to tell you what they know and what they dont know. Climate Ch is a THEORY. No scientist will tell you that a hurricane will devastate Georgia on Sept 13, 2012. Use your common sense; sooner or later a hurricane will do just that and the drought will be over. Sorry Arizona, no quick fixes for you.

dan, The earth is not flat, that is a science fact, so is man-made climate change. Once you see a co2 model, you might have a chance of understanding.

Agreed grrrrl4ever -- I love NM :-) Even if its hot, dry and dusty most of the year. And you know what? My Jeep doesn't have AC either. What can I say? I like the heat.

Speaking of heat, don't you miss the chile??? The NE thinks bell peppers are "Green Chiles," or so I hear, and the only thing with any spice to be found are jarred jalapenos. Tell me you have a direct shipment from Hatch ;-) I know I couldn't live without it...

WMG-21
In NM we have this thing that people call the "100 year drought" where every 100 years there is a period of extended precipitation decline, followed by flooding. From what I understand, we're right in the middle of it. I mean, most of NM and AZ are desert anyway-- isn't that what deserts are characterized by?

As one of my friends from NM once said, "until I was 12 I thought running water was the name of a town."

t

I swear, republicans must have a corn cobb stuck where the sun dont shine..this article is about a drought and some still bring obama into it or find other ways to make negative comments. Dont any of you republictards have a life or what? Such depressing people to deal with..I guess if I had politicians like you then I wouldnt have much to cheer about in life..hey, you still got your bibles and guns to cling to so life isnt that bad yeah? What jokes yall are...

climate change is a natural process, did most you lib miss the article where they are studying temperatures from 3 mil years ago where there were higher levels of CO2 then there are now? If you are truly worried about man made climate change please do all you can to fix this problem. Hold your breath for as long as possible, if you do it right you will lower CO2 that you would have expelled(something plants need to grow) and another benefit is the amount of oil you will not use that you would have otherwise and most important you will help with overpopulation of the world BEFORE that becomes your next big thing to spout on and on about.

@hubydoll

Place a mirror in front of the democrats. The same vitriol was spewed incessantly (and still is) about GW when he was in office, whether the story merited it or not. It's not a problem that effects one party-- it's a problem that effects people. Your own assumptions about Republicans (republicans must have a corn cobb stuck where the sun dont shine // Dont any of you republictards have a life or what? // still got your bibles and guns to cling to) rather obviously suggests that you're not immune to such stupidity yourself.

Chronicles of Thomas Covenant?

The white-gold wielder? I haven't heard that name in a really long time. Wow, I'm old.

I see there are a lot of people jealous of Texas. By the way most of Texas has been getting rain for the last 2 months. Just thought you should know what is really happening down south here. I even have a friend that lives just outside of Hobbs NM. and said for the first time in years he hasn't had to water the lawn and everything is green.

The insurance industry and some other entities should build huge quarries along the mississippi and install diversion gates so when the floods happen then they can open the gates and corral billions of gasllons of water. I dont know why this hasnt been done. Water is a great commodity. This would eliviate insurance claims on flooded towns and water could be piped with a water pipeline across the country to the southwest for profit. This would be one huge project worth consideration and a pipeline that would make good sense. They already have quarries that could do this. It would be kool to actually see if it would happen sometime in the future. I would do it if I had a couple billion to spare for sure. Water is very valuable. Why dont somebody who knows some billionaires pass this idea on to them..

snuzeyaluza... wouldn't that be down over 50 feet and dropping???

And desalination is possible and expensive.... IF you can get it past the environmentalists.

I'm not positive, but I believe a desalination facility is currently under construction in Mexico... just across the border with the intention of selling water to the US.

We have a desalination facility going up in Carlsbad (San Diego County). However, even though this will have the most up to date technology per the City of Carlsbad:

The Carlsbad Desalination Project is a 50-million gallon a day seawater desalination plant that will supply the San Diego region with approximately 10 percent of its drinking water needs.

Additionally, the cost of water from the plant is expected to be 3 - 4 times the typical cost of water. Of course if the drought continues this may be a bargain.

You can read more about this at: http://www.carlsbadca.gov/services/departments/water/pages/seawaterdist.aspxhttp://www.carlsbadca.gov/services/departments/water/pages/seawaterdist.aspx

G.F.S.D...

Thanks for the links.....

People haven't realized it yet, but water is the next big commodity. If people think the cost of gas is expensive... just wait.

Oh hell, it won't bother them.... they already pay $3 to $5 for a pint bottle of water. So, they're already paying $12 to $20 a gallon and not a peep!!!

True ... if you listen to the GCC religion, the oceans levels are going to rise some 3 feet or some @!$%# so it would seem we MUST remove water from the ocean and make it disappear somehow ... I guess we'd need to put the excess water on Mars. or, we can all buy a $60 light bulb and ride a bike, and hand the remainder of our disposable cash over to the GCC church and all will be good.

Water is one thing we need to survive, yet everyday we millions of gallons of drinkable water to do thing like fight fire, water lawns, wash cars driveways, and garage floors, flush toilets, the lsit goes on. Point is they could all be done with reclaimed water, or some cases just not done at all.

"GCC church"... Nice. Turn scientific analysis of data into a political denial. At least there will be plenty of sand for you to bury your head in.... unless you live close to the coast. South Texas is nice and flat and close to the ocean. Enjoy.

I think there is one talked about for the coast and barrier islands here.

Yep 9 mm...i meant to say dropping...not climbing..

I believe there is a town in Florida that has a desalintion plant..not sure...but gotta research it..

The one in Carlsbad...gotta read up on...

Most fresh water is used for agricultural purposes. Only 10% is municipal.

Hansen needs a record el Nino to bring actual global temperatures back into line with his model predictions. I would like to see a nice el Nino. This back-to-back la Nina has been hard on the water table.

Yet another way in which Texas resembles Hell...

But at least this year Gov. Rick will be there manning the buckets.

sorry to disappoint N. Texas is ahead in rainfall by 5" all lakes are over full so the big drought of last year looks better

West Texas is below our average.

Are you speaking of G.Bush's ranch? He would siphen water out of a babies bottle and declare war! Oh that right, he not prez but get Mitt ol boy to do it, count on that!

D Russ, you made me laugh. lol. It brought to mind Mr. Burns (The Simpsons) stealing candy from the baby. Good work. :)

I didn't know apples were nut trees.

If you look at the maps most of the state of Texas where the people live are not even in a drought or predicted drought. In fact they are releasing water in the lakes around Dallas as they are too full. Everything is very green and flowering here.

Well I'm sure glad there's no such thing as global warming - think how much worse this drought would be if there were!

I believe in both. It's man's (really just the U.S. now) arrogance that denies that we can have an effect on our environment and planet as a whole. God gave us intelligence. We've used this to know to put on a coat when it's cold, or get out of the way of a falling tree. This is no different. Just a larger scale. We used our brains against CFCs in the Montreal Protocol in the early 1990s; it worked.

People who have a problem with Science and Faith coexisting have been brainwashed by politicians' will to increasingly become a us versus them, an anti-intellectual society.

The good news though is that there is always an equal and opposite reaction to things. I only hope that a cultural one happens soon and people learn that science only speaks to the truth of our Earth...and God as well.

Well yes we are experiening a dryer than normal weather pattern in the states, but as for "Global Warming", the average worldwide temperatures over the past 10 years clearly show our planet is cooling overall, so stop listening to the media which has an agenda and read the facts. Remember this place was once a very hot dry place and at other times covered in ice...all before man arrived here, so I anticipate that will continue in the future as well. Many things influence our weather patterns, namely the ocean temperatures which have been well below normal in the northern pacific ocean these past few years...that pushes the jetstream north and in case you didn't read about it, parts of Canada had more than 30 feet of snow this year...gee global warming me thinks not :)

kfblogger -- Nope. If you're refering to the U.S., the U.S. has been experiencing increasing numbers of record heat days for several years now. The term global warming isn't accurate. The term has been switched to climate change to more accurately describe developing changes in weather patterns influenced by human activity. Climate change isn't going to affect every region on earth the same way.

On another note, the article mentions increasing drought conditions for much of California without mentioning that California's dry season generally starts in late Spring anyway and goes through late Summer/Fall. They also didn't mention that La Nina is weakening, which usually means a return to neutral or El Nino conditions, which generally means increased rainfall for California and in turn the southern U.S. Hopefully, the rainy season later this year will pick up with the end of La Nina.

I keep trying to beat it off my toes, but I'm having no luck. Damn moss. Next rainstorm only minutes away. Predicted to last 24 hours or so.

daryl - Too bad you didn't get into the Olympics far enough to take a dip in Crisler lake.

Who was Crisler and why did they name a lake after him?

I agree with you. Food on supermarket shelves will run out quickly. There will be hard times as we cannot imagine. I can tell you this regarding the southwest. Many areas of New Mexico and West Texas are bereft of simple grass, and even Chinese Elms aren't budding well. Something I've not seen in my lifetime...until now.

Hardwood trees thrive on CO2 and releases Oxygen. I say we drill, drill, drill, and plant plant plant. Problem solved.

Argue about "global warming" all you want but there is no arguing about global paving, global killing, and global polluting. The human species is eating up all the life on this planet. Many of the world's biggest cities, including in the USA, are toxic pits. The trees are dying, the sound of birds is fading, the clear water of lakes and rivers poisoned, the quiet places turned into shopping malls. Take a look around at all the people using leaf blowers, huge lawnmowers, jet skis, boats, ATV's and other needless pollution machines. Sit in your closed garage with the engine running and breathe deeply. That's what we're doing to the earth. It is a sin and a suicide.