On July 6th of 2011, Gov. Rick Perry officially declared a drought emergency in the state of Texas, and this week the governor extended that disaster proclamation. That means the state has been in a continuous drought for two years now, and in less than three weeks will enter the third year of drought -- and there still seems to be no end in sight.The drought areas are the colored areas on the map above (with the darker the color, the more severe the drought conditions). The drought covers 200 of the state's 254 counties (nearly 80% of the state). Note that only two small areas of East Texas are drought-free (the areas in white on the map).
And the drought is particularly bad here in the Panhandle and plains of West Texas, which are rated as either extreme or exceptional (the worst two categories of drought). We don't just need rain -- we need lots and lots of rain. Unfortunately, that is unlikely. It has been a fairly dry Spring and now Summer is here -- a time of year when it rains very little even in a non-drought year.
I would like to think this is just a temporary problem (like we have had in the past). But I am starting to think this is going to be more permanent -- the result of global warming. That's a rather scary thought, since our government seems to have no interest in taking any action to slow it down or stop it.
I guess in a way it is a sort of poetic justice. Most of the areas hit with the worst drought conditions are areas that keep electing Republicans (global warming deniers) to represent them. I guess it could be said that Texas voters have brought this on themselves -- but that doesn't make it any easier to take.
