Texas, along with other parts of the south climate region, is in the grip of a major weather event, characterized by high temperature and little, if any, precipitation. What can be said that adequately conveys the depth of the impact that can result from exposure to excessive temperatures or that conveys the problem of living without significant precipitation in what now is Texas’ worst one-year record drought? Some answers are provided to us through a variety of media sources. They may be numerical, visual, anecdotal, right, wrong, biased or objective, but they are unceasing.
Do the facts heard and read convey a sense of reality to an urban Houstonian living in an air-conditioned environment with no immediate threat of scarce water or interrupted electrical service?
We certainly have been informed of a barrage of quantitative facts such as:
- Based on records dating from 1895, preliminary data describe July 2011 as the hottest month ever recorded in Texas.
- Dallas exceeded 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 degrees Celsius) on 30 of the 31 days during July. On Monday, Aug. 1, 15 Texas locations tied or broke high temperature records, for that date; 21 locations tied or broke records for Aug. 2 on that date, and 18 locations did the same on Aug. 3.
- July offered no relief to the parched soils of Texas where it was the second (tied) driest July on record. Texas now has had five straight months in which average precipitation ranked in the bottom 10 driest. In Texas, “exceptional drought” covers more than 75 percent (201,436 square miles) of the state.
And perhaps we have been presented with pictures such as the one shown here displaying a huge blood red blob covering Texas. Admittedly, it conveys the drought situation very dramatically.
Maybe we have gained insight from the constant intake of media-generated stories about various parts of the state, geared to give us a sense of the dire effect the drought has had on economic, ecologic, agricultural and animal conditions across Texas:
- The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reports that drought conditions at several locations in the South region (including Texas) are not as long lived, but are as dry, or drier, than the historic droughts of the devastating 1930s dust bowl or the decadal long major drought of the 1950s.
- An Associated Press article speaks to the effect of this drought on wildlife in the Texas Panhandle: “In a muddy pile of sand where a pond once flowed, dead fish, their flesh already decayed and feasted on by maggots, lie with their mouths open. Nearby, deer munch on the vegetation equivalent of junk food, and wild turkeys nibble on red harvester ants — certainly not their first choice for lunch.”
- A story from Texas agriculture rings especially poignant. Economists with the Texas AgriLife Extension Service have dire predictions for agricultural losses in Texas this year, as drought conditions destroy crops and increase costs for livestock producers. Livestock losses derived from drought from late 2010 through mid-2011 are at an estimated $1.2 billion. These losses include the increased cost of feed crops and usage of drought-devastated wheat pastures for livestock grazing. Low wheat crop harvest, drought-stricken cotton crops, and late-planted corn and other spring crops add an additional $300 million in agricultural dollar loses.
- According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the acreage of Texas rangeland and pastures in very poor or poor conditions stood at 93 percent by the end of July. The USDA soil moisture report stated that Texas topsoil moisture was 97 percent, classified as short to very short.
- By the end of June 2011, the USDA had already designated 213 counties in Texas as primary natural disaster areas during one of the worst droughts in more than a century. The state sustained excessive heat, high winds and wildfires that burned hundreds of thousands of acres.
- Texas firefighters have battled hundreds of wildfires that have charred more than 3,500 square miles since November 2010. Humidity of less than 10 percent and wind gusts up to 45 mph across most of West Texas could lead to more blazes. In addition to the drought, this year’s fires are also being fueled by the heavy vegetation that flourished in last year’s rains, then died and dried out, according to the Associated Press.
So we gather data, numerical, visual or anecdotal, and we form an opinion about the drought. We may wonder what is the cause of this extreme weather. It has been reported to us to be due to a persistent high-pressure dome over the state, or possibly a recurring La Niña conditions in the central Pacific Ocean or perhaps even the beginnings of a visible global climate effect (even in Texas). We also briefly dwell on the stories we have heard of economic, ecological or social impacts of the drought on other animals as well as humans.
But truly, how much does it all really mean to us? Do we try to be part of it — or do we quickly retreat back into our controlled environment and move on to the next news item?
We are most likely to be only tangentially affected by what we have heard and, more than likely we will have failed to establish any real connections with the true victims — the wild environment, the animals that depend on a steady source of drinking water or a stable water world to swim in, the farmers and those others whose lives are more intimately tied to the natural world than ours.
Maybe next time we might intend to seek to find out what we could do to get involved.
Ronald L. Sass, Ph.D., is the fellow in global climate change at the Baker Institute and the Harry C. and Olga K. Wiess Professor Emeritus of Natural Sciences at Rice University. Now retired, he joined the Rice faculty in 1958 and served as chairman of the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department.