"Can We Really Imagine..."

I think it's safe to say the vast majority of us are complacent when it comes to having the basic necessities of life like shelter, food, water, electricity, etc. Too, many of us don't like to 'give up' something we've gotten used to, be it something good or bad for us...when something is taken away, we grab for it. Water is no exception.

Our current drought is on track to supercede what was considered to be the historic drought of 2002 which was the culmination of a 4-year period of dropping water levels; in 2007, we are seeing serious, prolonged dry spells that are dropping municipal water sources to disconcerting levels. Long-term prospects for rain continue to be rather dismal, and water restrictions will most likely (and should) continue to tighten consumption.



The above map and key pretty much tells the overall story...one told in other Southeast states, as well. Here's a little NC trivia fact for you: there are 100 counties in the Tarheel state. I say that because it makes calculating percentages a snap. Here are some statistics that are rather sobering in their scope:

# NC counties in "Exceptional Drought"....55
# NC counties in "Extreme Drought"........31
# NC counties in "Severe Drought"..........11
# NC counties in "Moderate Drought".......03

Wow. 86% of NC counties are in extreme or exceptional drought status...that's almost 9 out of every 10 counties in serious, serious trouble. 97% of the state is in severe status or worse. Nobody is exempt, and we all have to do our part to cut back - needless to say I'm one who advocates even stiffer penalties for those selfish individuals and companies who continue to disobey restrictions.

And so I watched a string of cars go through a car wash yesterday and I wondered what each driver was thinking, if anything, on how their individual action changes anything. I rank it up there with voting ideology - collectively, the impact is huge. So a car wash company stands to lose money because of weather. Farmers lose money because of weather. Painters and builders can lose money because of weather. All kinds of businesses stand to lose business due to weather. Car washes should be no exception, though I don't see efforts to curtail their water usage. Just something that made me go 'hmmmm' yesterday....

Following is a breakdown of info from the NC Drought Monitor webpage. This first graphic deals with the # of water "systems" in the state, where water is treated and distributed, with the color coding explained in the blue type following:

Likewise, this is the pie chart as it relates to the NC population affected by water 'systems' under restrictions, or not, with the color key in the graphic to follow:


Almost half of the state's population is under a mandatory restriction of some sort, which you can pretty well guess encompasses the larger cities. Over 60% of the systems in the state are currently not restricted, though that is likely to change with the drought continuing.

As yet there are no emergency level restrictions, but they are not out of the realm of possibility. Greensboro started Stage 2b restrictions today, and even in north Georgia some areas are considering water rationing. It's not just our problem - it's everybody's problem.

If you are interested in what water 'systems' in particular are doing in relation to our drought concerns, you can go to the following link to see a complete listing for NC, alpabetized by county (scroll down from graphics at the top):
Current restrictions for NC systems

So the 100-million dollar question is when is rain coming? I don't see it in the next few weeks; what needs to happen is a major shift in global jet stream patterns in the northern hemisphere to shift our months-long high pressure ridge domination out into the Atlantic and off the eastern seaboard. Those types of large-scale changes take months to occur, assuming they are in the process of occurring.