{"id":27618,"date":"2018-01-24T23:18:25","date_gmt":"2018-01-24T23:18:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=27618"},"modified":"2018-01-24T23:18:25","modified_gmt":"2018-01-24T23:18:25","slug":"drought-returned-vengeance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=27618","title":{"rendered":"Drought has returned with a vengeance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n<p>I guess we can say with supreme confidence that the Texas Panhandle drought has returned.<\/p>\n<p>In a big way!<\/p>\n<p>The TV weather forecasters remind us that we&#8217;ve gone 102 days without measurable precipitation. They bemoan the low humidity, the low dew points. They remind us to avoid doing anything stupid that would torch the landscape.<\/p>\n<p>However, the Amarillo Fire Department today did something I consider to be a bit strange. It conducted a &#8220;prescribed burn.&#8221; Why strange? The wind was howling! It&#8217;s going to howl again &#8212; with even more vigor &#8212; on Thursday. It was the first such controlled burn in decades.<\/p>\n<p>AFD warns us about the danger of lighting fires in dry conditions. The wind has this way of blowing red-hot embers to places far away. Doesn&#8217;t the wind do the same thing to fire departments, too?<\/p>\n<p>Well, no harm today. The burn in southeast Amarillo went off without any serious problem.<\/p>\n<p>The drought is something for us to ponder. We also need to act on it. Don&#8217;t waste water. Don&#8217;t cause any wildfires. Don&#8217;t put your family, friends and neighbors at risk.<\/p>\n<p>The return of the drought demonstrates this fundamental truth: Human beings &#8212; no matter our technological advances &#8212; are powerless against the forces of nature.<\/p>\n<p>Hey, wasn&#8217;t it just a few weeks ago when we completed a year with greater-than-normal precipitation? I guess what&#8217;s true in politics is true as it regards Mother Nature: A month is an eternity.<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I guess we can say with supreme confidence that the Texas Panhandle drought has returned. In a big way! The TV weather forecasters remind us that we&#8217;ve gone 102 days without measurable precipitation. They bemoan the low humidity, the low dew points. They remind us to avoid doing anything stupid that would torch the landscape. &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=27618\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Drought has returned with a vengeance<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/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":[2121,7040,4670],"class_list":["post-27618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environmental-news","tag-high-plains","tag-mother-nature","tag-texas-panhandle-drought"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27618","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=27618"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27618\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27619,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27618\/revisions\/27619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}