It really is a drought!

 It's official.  Howell County is a disaster area due to heat and drought.  That's probably not news to most readers since nearly 1,300 counties in 29 states are in a drought disaster, according to the U. S. Dept. of Agriculture.  It's the most wide spread drought in the U. S. since 1956.

At right is a photo of my front yard rain gauge on July 2 waiting for a rain.   We received 1.7 inches of rain in Mountain View in first 8 days of July and no more until August 1 when a piddling 0.3 inches fell. 

The next photo is our front yard on August 3.  Even my weeds are dying. 

 Our average July precip is 3.7 inches.  Normally in January-July we receive 25.7 inches of precipitation.  This year we've had 18.1 inches, a short fall of 7.6 inches. 

The average annual precipitation is 43.7 inches at Mountain View.  We have a long way to go.   

Then... add to that the extreme heat, the worst since 1954.  We've had 11 days in July when the high temperature reached 100 degrees or more. 

Our drought started in April.  January-March had near normal rainfall.  Then May was even worse.  May is usually our highest rainfall month, but this year we had only 1.3 inches compared to nearly 5 normally. 

It was a terrible year to plant pine trees to grow for Christmas trees.  Most of mine didn't reach Independence Day.  Sad pine at right.