How Dry I Am

[Pete_Pittock]

scorching chip shot, literally. Redding, CA, currently 109F
https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/golf/golfer-s-chip-shot-starts-1-acre-fire-in-california-it-s-just-that-dry/ar-AAM0nMk?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531

[John Emerson]

I’m not sure folks understand what’s going on there right now and how bad it actually is or the impact it could have to the food chain

[Thomas Dai]

There have been a few reports about US/Canada drought, fires, low reservoir levels etc in the U.K. media recently so I had been wondering about the effects on golf. So if someone could elaborate .......
Johns comment about the impact on the food chain is an interesting one.
Atb

[Kalen Braley]

Thomas,

I've lived in the Western part of the US my entire life and absolutely love it as it has such a terrific diversity of terrain, climate, places to live, etc.

But record heat and record drought mixed in with a massive population is exacerbating things quickly.  The impact to the rest of the country is very real as over a third of the country’s vegetables and two-thirds of the country’s fruits and nuts are grown in California.  Southern California only has enough water locally for about 1/4 of its population and the rest they have to bring in via aqueduct or otherwise.  But now those outside resources are quickly dwindling too.

Even locally here in Utah, despite widespread and very severe drought, the population is growing like crazy with some estimates predicting the population of northern Utah will double in the next 20 years.

All things considered in the aggregate its a very bad situation brewing and I'm not seeing much in the way of real change to mitigate this.

[Thomas Dai]

Thanks for theses insights Kalen. Best of luck to all those unfortunately involved.
Atb

[Craig Sweet]

I have lived in Montana for 38 years, and the climate has changed quite a bit.  This year we had very little snow, and the rivers warmed up, and dried up, early.  Many of our finest trout streams are closed, or have restrictions on them. The woods are bone dry, but still open for recreating, but probably not for too much longer.  And, lots of forest fire smoke has made the air 'Unhealthy' in many of our cities and towns. But still, the people come...tourism up....home sales to out of staters up.  Ugh!

[Kalen Braley]

https://www.npr.org/2021/07/13/1013446314/amid-a-mega-drought-a-water-shortage-will-be-declared-along-the-colorado-river


"Another dry year has left the watershed that supplies 40 million people in the Southwest parched. A prolonged 21-year warming and drying trend is pushing the nation's two largest reservoirs to record lows. For the first time, a shortage is expected to be declared by the federal government, this summer."