Bet, they showed Lake Lanier on the news this morning. Really bad.

Carla

I really feel your pain, but I would like to mention that many of us on this forum experience the same thing every few years.
I work for the water company and part of my job is to go to the part of the lake where our intake is and collect samples 3 times a week. The pictures you showed pretty much could have been taken here any summer that I have worked here except for the past one.
Last year was so bad that the intake (supposed to be at the deepest part of the lake), was only 10 feet or so from the edge of the water.
I am not trying to make light of your situation, just pointing out that y'all are getting drought this year in the one year that it actually rained down here.
The rain stopped after the onslaught in June and now our lake is back to looking almost as bad as your pictures.
I live in one of the wettest parts of Texas, btw.
Carrie

Are you joining in The Gov's raindance or was it prayer? I think he ought to have a chicken barbecue.

CW, I understand what you are saying, but this is not a yearly event. Sure the lake goes down, but in it's 50 year history, it's never been this low.

So give us our rain back :)

Pete, ironically they are calling for a 30% chance of rain on Tuesday. Typical politician, he wants to take credit.

I really am sorry about your drought. I hope things change. I would be having a fit about this.

No, this is not a typical drought this is not something experienced every few years. This is worse than it has been since before the Civil War. There are former wetland areas, high-humidity areas in threat of becoming a desert. This is a threat to our existence. Don't kid yourself, this has not existed in this proportion in our lifetime.

We live on Lake Townsend - much the same. I didn't know what an intake was when it appeared from the lake.

We have a collection of those artistic tree stumps too, although they seem to be disappearing. I think someone is taking them.

We are in no where nearly as bad a position as Georgia though. I just realized of all the times I've passed Lake Lanier on my way between Chattanooga and Atlanta, I've never seen it anything but brimming full.

CW,
When I see the heavy rainfalls filling river valleys in your part of the world, I see the river doing what it's done before, or that valley wouldn't be the form it is now.
I don't see features of the east that tell me that this level drought has been any kind of repetitive feature.
The only hint is a comment in a book from the early 1800s that my part of TN wasn't where the natives lived, but where different tribes hunted at different times of the year. Not exactly strong evidence.
When the early settlers arrived there were some grasslands that they didn't understand. Most of them were caused by really shallow topsoil (on top of limestones that are almost pure with little clay). But there are one or two for which explanations lack. Could they have been drought caused four centuries ago?
There are many, many farm ponds that were reduced to puddles and now are mudflats with cattails looking peaked. The creek at the bottom of our property, that's the southern end of Indian Race Path Bluff is dry. Totally dry. It drains a lot of land upstream.
Our autumn is strange. There's fall color, but it's dependent on where the trees are. Trees along stream beds turned at the normal time. Butternut trees on hills turned three weeks later. Sugar Maples on hills are coming along very, very slowly. Ours have lost their highest leaves and the bottom leaves are just beginning to turn.
Some hardwoods and our orchard haven't turned at all.
The trees aren't sure what to do.
Most cattle herds have been sold off.
A few neighbors who irrigate from the river are weary.

It's one thing to have a weather impact that's predictable, or at least memorable withint the old timers' lifetimes.
This is different.
We haven't had Gulf moisture. We've had very little Pacific moisture. There are a few clouds that reach us from the Great Lakes, but their contribution is misty. Most of our rain this summer has come off the Atlantic.

We remain in exceptional drought. Much of the land where there southeastern rivers arise is with us. If the water isn't here, it's not going to flow downstream.

I didn't mean to sound like I thought this was an occasional event for you guys.
I was just pointing out that y'all are living over there in rain heaven, where all sorts of cool native plants can be found, and where a drought like this is so rare that it is a major event. You should realize how lucky you are.
It's normal for us, and just as devestating.
We have cattle too, so I know what the farmers are going through.

The Army Corp of Engineers is still releasing 3.2 BILLION gallons of water a day.

And it hasn't rained in about 2 weeks.

Lots going out, nothing going in........

BUFORD, that is scary, to see Lake Lanier, drying up like that.
Right now, we are being advised to save water, strongly, through
the media, in Southern California.

My understanding is that if Alabama and Georgia do not get rain soon, 3 million people in the metro Atlanta area alone are going to be without water, that the area is only about 1-1/2 months from that and Buford said there was rain 2 weeks ago, and that did not reach this part of Alabama. We have not had measurable rain in my area since the week before Easter, back in April.

Those pictures are impressive - you guys in the South still are not getting rain? The news has stopped talking about it a lot, but it seems in Georgia and California the drought is still getting worse!

We've had very little Pacific moisture.

*** HEH.
That's because there ain't none.
FWIW, we are just returned from a trip, driving from SoCal to TX, through TX, and back home.
I packed rainboots. After all, it was late Oct.-Early Nov.
Not a drop, not a hint of rain anywhere, and temperatures were consistently about 10 deg. above normal for the dates.
Some heat records were set.
No rain. No clouds. Any Pacific moisture is going far North, over the Pacific North West (which may get an abnormally WET winter).

Yes, indeed. Southern California's drought continues.

Jeri

How terrible. Looks like pics of Lake Powell in Utah. We drove down to Fort Polk in Leesville, LA a couple of weeks ago from Peoria, IL. It started raining in southern IL and rained the entire drive to LA. Mississippi had standing water and the cotton fields looked like rice paddies. Rained the whole week. Of course, it dried up when we got into Illinois. Been dry here all year also. Was hoping some of that rain was going to move over into GA for you guys.

no rain, and now even the slight chance of rain on Tuesday has disappeared.....I'm so glad I put those rain barrels up!

more depressing pictures....

http://projects.ajc.com/gallery/view/news/drought1016/

Maybe Climate change??

The historical low was in fact in 1981, but we are rapidly approaching it.

This speaks more to our lack of planning and mismanagement of resources than global warming.

When the Ice Age ended and the glaciers melted was that due to auto emissions?

Could it also be a lack of rain?

Who was there during the Ice Age?

So you're putting your opinion against an army of scientists?

There are so many things that have happened in the here and now that when you add them up it becomes a looming disaster. It is not only the melting of polar ice but the loss of rain forests, the dead zones in the ocean, the desertifiction that follows the cutting of trees, the soil erosion that also follows the loss of trees, it is not only CO2 but other gases, it is the presence of chemicals in our envronment that are unkown to nature, coral reefs that are disappearing, etc.

All of these things cannot be explained away by quoting some odd bit of history when weighed against what truly is a massive change in how we live today compared to the past.

This is just an easy way out from facing the problem of CC.

I'm in agreement w/ Jim.
I hope that there will be some weather trends to moderate the drought, but I'm not very hopeful about it.
We are lucky, we had 3 rains in the fall, and when I watered yesterday, I was able to use water from my rain barrel. One of my top priorities is to get more guttering put up, the area I have covered now is very small. Brandy
BTW, the latest Popular Science touted a system for using gray water to flush the toilet, if anyone is interested-
www.watersavertech.com
and an article on using gray water for plants -
http://www.owue.water.ca.gov/docs/graywater_guide_book.pdf.

I love watching the History Channel. Our planet has had periods of global warming before. Even though humans are currently causing a great deal of the warming occuring now, it can also be caused by gases released from volcanoes, melting glaciers, & methane released from the ocean as the water temps rise. Very interesting stuff!

Peg

I don't know this for sure but since the field of environmental scientists is the environment they surely must have as a first step looked at the history of planet and it's environment.

Even if we are in one of those cycles what we are doing as a species is making our future prospects worse. So many of the responses to my original post about climate change were similar to yours. An effort to dismiss the threat or even challenging the premise that people are causing it. Perhaps it is a hidden desire for it to go away so we wouldn't have to drastically change our life style.

I can agree with that but unfortunately I'm stuck with my two daugters who made a film about it and I'm inundated with more knowledge about CC than I want to know. And another challenge to face is a real pain!

btw jim, I saw pictures of what I think are your daughters from the premier of the movie. They are beautiful. You should be very proud.

Up to a 50% chance of rain Wednesday night WHOO HOO!

Yes they are, so lucky I am.

Thanks.

Sorry about your problem, thanks for the link and trip down memory lane. I grew up in Gainesville and Lake Lanier was our 'swimming pool'. Attended Lake Lanier Elementary for all of grade school years, wonder if it is still there. I still remember getting our feet cut when swimming there due to the pop bottles thrown in the lake.

Hope it rains for you, I would gladly send you a little bit of ours from Western Washington where the rain festival runs from Jan. 1st to Dec. 31st:)

Buford, I hear your getting light rain because governor Purdue
prayed for rain yesterday.

Not a drop here in Marietta yet, but I am hopeful. My roses just look awful, they are struggling. I'm including a link to a local tv station that keeps track of the water going into and out of our lakes daily. It really is depressing to see the numbers and know that there is no end in sight.

Kristi

Here is a link that might be useful: lake levels

Jeri is right. All those rain clouds that you guys/gals are missing have found their way up to the Pacific North We(s)t. It's like there is a two month long "North American rain cloud convention" taking place here. There has been nothing but rain, rain, rain and more rain. And high winds.

If someone can find a way of teleporting the moisture to you needy folks, I shall be over-joyed.

Hee Hee Joe.
I spent a rainy winter in Seattle, one long day . . .
We went up to shoot an NHRA drag race -- out near Kent, maybe?
The rain started as soon as qualifying did, and it rained for a week.
We finally had to give up, and go home.

Jeri

Sorry to hear of your soaking, Jeri.

It's easy to understand why some of the best extreme rain gears are made in this corner of the earth. But then, it has also given rise to a new phrase - "leaky condos", a "made in BC tragedy".

But given a choice between the type of drought discussed in the thread and the incessant rain, I will choose the latter anytime! Sometimes, I get a perverted sense of exhilaration being out in the rain, walking the dog, gardening, etc.

It did rain last night, I heard thunder during the night and it's wet outside. I'm not sure how much we got, I have to check the rain barrels when it gets light out.

I feel like a kid on Xmas morning :)

Bet, just heard on TV that Nashville got almost 3". We had about as much as you. It's like diamonds falling from the sky, so precious. Parts of Kentucky had rough weather.

Carla

Carla, I think we got an inch or more. My rain barrels are FULL, it's amazing. I wish I had been out there (in the middle of the night) and drained them into some other containers so I could have kept more water, but this is great. Plus everything got a good soaking.

I'm trying to talk DH Into getting more rain barrels.....