Texas Heat!

[ustmd]

Now that we are in Stage 2 in Travis county, we have decided to give up on the garden for the summer. Too hot, too dry.

Great 'matos, zucchinis and squash this year.

Oh, we had a straight temp of of 102 and a HHI of 105 yesterday.

 

[Western]

110.4 today.:thumbdown: I keep hoping for a break, but it ain't happening. Dennis, I hate losing trees to drought, but I lost about 100 trees back in 1997/1998 and again in 2005/2006 when we had droughts. Those were native trees. Are your red oaks and live oaks native?

Jim, yeah they are all full blood Texan! maybe 100 years old on the oldest, so I would think they have been through this before. Most of the younger trees seem to be holding their own. With 100- 110 degrees and R Humidity in the mid-20's it is dry dry dry.
My few Squash and Zucchini have been such a pita, I think I may go ahead and remove them too.

My small pond has gone dry, makes it easier to get in and get the Cattails out, but I will have to put in a temporary water trough since the deer are coming in the yard for water. Had a Great Horned Owl on the bird bath last night!!

 

[mikim]

Jim - nice to see your ponds / lake and garden are doing so well. I've stopped watering our new grass being afraid the well might run dry. All the ponds around here are dry and most have bulldozers and trackhoes in 'em working. Guess everybody figures to try to get something good out of this drought. We broke ground on this house Oct 19 and they never lost a day of work due to rain....silly me...I was happy about that. Little did I know. I believe we've had about 3" total since then. I'm losing trees too. Mostly pin oaks but even some cedar. I'd like to start building a rain water collection system but starting to wonder if I'd be trying to catch dreams.

 

[jinman]

Mike, we must have a cold front today. Yesterday it was 110 and today it is only 105. Where's my sweater?:laughing:

I really feel sorry for you folks in Central TX. Heck, everywhere but the DFW area is dry in the whole state. Even so, they've had storms around Palestine a couple of days this month, so it can't be too dry there.:confused3: I hope your well holds out. What is the aquifer you draw from?

 

[Alan L.]

A blue northern blew in and my weatherbug is only showing 99 right now. But as the temp goes down the humidity goes up.

 

[mikim]

Jim - I think we draw from what they call the simsboro aquifer. Same one they say has dropped 18ft and the one water speculators want to drill into to pipe to San Antonio. According to my personal climatologist back in the old office - this winter is going to be about as dry as last. I'm afraid we could be in trouble as early as Oct if we don't get some serious rain. Hate to say it -- but we could sure use a hurricane.

 

[Western]

We actually got a 5 minute shower today!! Not sure who ordered it, but thanks:thumbsup: Maybe 2/10's ,but cooled the air down for about 20 minutes then the humidity went up.

 

[crash325]

Know that it is bad in TX, lack of rain.

Same here my part of AZ. Old mesquite dying, cactus is even dying as are most other desert plants. Most of the desert plants can go a year or 2 with very little rain or water.

A big mesquite, in the yard, hosting a hack berry has never needed extra water. Had to water it this year.

Even the critters are confused and not reproducing. Some years my quail will have 3 broods, this year it 1 or none and only 5 to 7 young ones for those that did sit their eggs.

 

[Bird]

We actually got a 5 minute shower today!! Not sure who ordered it, but thanks:thumbsup: Maybe 2/10's ,but cooled the air down for about 20 minutes then the humidity went up.

For about 5 minutes, I thought we might get a shower, but didn't. The NWS had forecast a 10% chance and I guess that little line I saw on the radar was what gave you a shower and missed us.

 

[Bird]

Perhaps the worst thing for us in this heat is the reliability of our electric power. Ours went off night before last about 9:30 p.m., but came back on in about 5 minutes. Then this morning it went off about 6:40 a.m. and didn't come back on for about 45 minutes. As long as it isn't off any longer than that, no problem but I'm not too confident.