re: Drought incoming?

Just for the sake of interest:





By comparison, last year's drought was exacerbated by a dry end to 2022. A large chunk of the state was still in moderate drought well into December. It wasn't until nearly Christmas that most of the state saw good relief, and abnormally dry conditions along with a small area of moderate drought was still in the southeastern part of the state into the new year of 2023.

That led to drought setting in much faster with moderate drought back on the map for the BR/NOLA areas as early as mid-March. There was just minimal recovery from the dry end to 2022, which allowed drought to set in quicker than what is maybe normal. You all seem to be starting from a better place this time around.

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Drought incoming?

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Dunno. However, I do know that the grass has slowed down significantly because of the heat and lack of rain but I’m not complaining. Damned grass seemed to have been growing 2” a day before this little dry, hot spell.
I think I only had to mow grass 4 or 5 times last summer due to that drought.

Yes, the heat dome has returned. But it will be much shorter this year. It didn't start in June.

My wife is already complaining about what the water bill will be now that I've started watering again. She will take 2 baths, run the dishwasher with 3 plates in it, run the washer to for one bra, and leave every light in the house on. Me putting the AC at 71 during the day when I'm home and keeping the yard alive is the whole problem, though.

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frick, last year sucked arse. Between the drought and the hard freeze, I’ve seen mature magnolia trees straight up fricking dead this year. Still standing, but every leaf dead and brown. I’m not sure I had ever seen that in my life before this.

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I'll take this year over last year any time. It's the south. It's guaranteed to be hot and dry for some amount of time in the summer. Last year it seemed like it was hot from May through October. This year we've had a ton of rain, and quite a few cool fronts giving us a week here and there with highs not even hitting 90.

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I remember 2 or 3 years ago we had a rough one.

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Do you mean last year??

Maybe? It’s been a little wetter & not as hot as previous summers in North La, but next couple weeks look like typical swamp arse August weather.

The 5th fairway of the Pine course in Diamondhead looks like a river after the storm that just rolled thru here. We easily got at least 4" of rain in 15 minutes just now.

Yes!! Almost as bad as last year in north St Tammany. It’s a pain in the arse to do all this watering! Someone do some rain dancing!