{"id":26888,"date":"2017-12-15T00:29:43","date_gmt":"2017-12-15T00:29:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=26888"},"modified":"2017-12-15T00:29:43","modified_gmt":"2017-12-15T00:29:43","slug":"remember-our-drought-it-never-really-left","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=26888","title":{"rendered":"Remember our drought? It never really left"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Our Texas Panhandle TV weather forecasters keep telling us the latest measureable precipitation fell on the High Plains way back in October.<\/p>\n

That tells me something quite ominous: The drought that many folks thought was over during our wetter-than-normal summer season has reared its head. In my view, we never really had put the drought behind us.<\/p>\n

We’re still about 6 inches above normal precipitation year to date, thanks to the drenching we received earlier this year. That’s all fine and dandy.<\/p>\n

But here’s the hard truth: water remains at critically low levels.<\/p>\n

I walked into City Hall just about four days ago and noticed the city’s “Every Drop Counts” daily water-use gauge over the first-floor elevators. On that day, the goal was set at 29 million gallons; the actual water use for the day totaled 40 million gallons.\u00a0<\/em>Let’s see, that’s an 11 million gallon water-use-goal deficit. Not good, Amarillo.<\/p>\n

I harp on this on occasion, and I am aware I might sound like the proverbial “broken record.” Too bad. It bears repeating.<\/p>\n

We cannot be squandering our water resource. Sure, the wet spring and summer was welcome. It helped produce bumper crops; it kept our playas full; it helped feed the cattle that fuel our agriculture-based economy.<\/p>\n

But we all know this truth: Rainfall is a cyclical event. It flows — and, yes, it ebbs.<\/p>\n

It is ebbing at the moment. Those weather forecasters dare not predict when we’ll get any measureable rain- or snowfall. They keep telling us that weather forecasting in the Texas Panhandle is a best-guess endeavor.<\/p>\n

Until that day comes — and beyond — how about taking better care of our water?<\/p>\n\n

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Our Texas Panhandle TV weather forecasters keep telling us the latest measureable precipitation fell on the High Plains way back in October. That tells me something quite ominous: The drought that many folks thought was over during our wetter-than-normal summer season has reared its head. In my view, we never really had put the drought … Continue reading Remember our drought? It never really left<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1656,4670],"class_list":["post-26888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environmental-news","tag-every-drop-counts","tag-texas-panhandle-drought"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26888"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26888\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26890,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26888\/revisions\/26890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}