Two summers ago we were in D2 and D3. Last spring we had torrential rains and heavy flooding, so the summer was only moderately dry.

Waiting to see what this year will bring, but I know it isn't nearly as bad as in Texas.

Thank you Marylyn!

I just love home-school teachers - they always know the coolest websites

Or, you can look at it from the opposite end of the spectrum- the soil moisture map. It's so wet here we've had flooding and hillsides washing out. I wish I could send some rain to Texas
http://www.weather.com/maps/ac...

Karen

That's interesting, Karen. It shows east Texas as being as moist as KY is. And at the moment, KY is pretty moist!!

Unless I'm reading it wrong that's for the top 5' of soil. Which is good for crops & even to shrubs but trees even though they can get drinks from the top 5 feet ultimately need the deep down moisture. I was reading a short blurb in Smithsonian magazine today in the dentists office about Aspens & how they suffered from drought a few years ago & there is still a die off from that. Even though there is water now; it affected them in such a way that they are dying from prolonged dehydration so to speak. I wish I had had more time with it but they called me to the dentist's chair at that moment.
Anyone here subscribe to Smithsonian? I have no idea what month. I think they called it the "addiction" issue. Had articles about gold mining, orchid hybridizers & shows. There was a cool blurb on crows too.

Ah! Found it online:

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/...

Thank you Ann!

I love the Smithsonian!
Yep, thanks, Anni!

Should have brought the magazine with me cause I sat there in the dentist chair forever waiting. Sigh. People is not nearly so interesting as Smithsonian.

But I'll bet more people read 'People' than read the Smithsonian.

I love the Smithsonian, especially the art/history articles.

October 1998, I believe. That was a record-setting flood, killed dozens of people. I don't remember how much rain we got that weekend...I think that it was after that I started looking for a rain gauge that could hold 12 or more inches of water...and no stores sold anything like that! I mean, who can run outside to dump the rain gauge when it's very heavy rain like that time? I don't know where you were in Texas, but many of the Hill Country counties are collectively know as Flash Flood Alley. We may often have prolonged dry spells and droughts, but when the rainstorms really get out of control here and that really extreme rainfall occurs, those areas just have chronic drainage problems. The rare super-severe rainstorms tend to stall over Flash Flood Alley counties, leading to continuous flash flooding over many hours to days. Another reason why loss of trees and vegetation recently is so serious...what's going to help hold the soil in place when the floods come again?

fiwit said:Were you there for the 18" of rain in one weekend? I want to say it was 1997 or 98...gonna go with 1998, based on which job I was working at hte time -- September-ish as I recall. I was flying out that morning, and had to drive myself to the airport cause no taxis could get to where I was.

Yeah, Oct 98 was it... I flew from SATX to Destin, FL for 2 weeks, and my boss called and asked if I could go from there straight to Milwaukee. I told him they'd have to ship my winter coat to Milwaukee if they wanted me to do that.

In my 11 years in TX, I lived in Converse, Schertz, the north-central side of SAT (always outside the Loop), and then the northwest side (410/Culebra area). In 1998, I rented a bedroom from friends because I was traveling 80% of the time.

Georgia's had a lot of rain the last couple months, but the lakes are still way down. And we had that historic drought back in 06-08...that's what killed the two conifers in my front yard.

Yes Linda, that's what I worry about too ~~~ what's going to hold the vegetation in place? We can only hope it doesn't come to that point. Hold our breath & cross our fingers.

I heard that San Antonio demolished the old shopping center that my family used to shop at in S.A. Northwest Plaza...they're gonna dig a big pit there for flood control. Too little too late, that's their usual policy. But at least they will plant trees there!

'Too little too late' seems to be the common policy for a lot of things these days.
It takes trees many years to reach maturity.

But at least in that case, Linda, the effort is there.

You know what kills me? When the building codes call for landscaping especially of commercial buildings/centers but then the requirements for the size of the tree are so skimpy that it's ridiculous. Twigs! That's what they get to plant essentially ~ twigs! It will take 20 - 30 yrs. for them to be any size to even cast some shade & by that time they'll be tearing down the shopping center.

At least nowadays they're required to preserve a few trees when building in San Antonio...it used to be they didn't care if they destroyed every single tree!

AFTER they finally realized the importance of what they were destroying.

Oh boy! I got on my soapbox with that first article, but the good thing is, there were so many in agreement. So I didn't feel like the last tree standing like I thought I would.

And with this article, I've found so many more who have joined in.
Maybe we can make a little bit of difference.

I'm still trying to catch up on the site from when life swamped me so I haven't read the first article yet or a # of articles, tips, etc.....

Working on it.