skip to main content

Rocky Mountain Gardening

Drought in the Intermountain West

Dan _Staley (5b Sunset 2B AHS 7)

13 years ago

As if you didn't know already by your plants or by your water bill, the US Drought Monitor has finally caught up and recognized the widespread dryness this summer. Those of us on the Front Range are now officially in a 'Moderate' drought situation:

{{gwi:1082367}}

No indication from the official folks about medium-term from La NiÃ¯Â¿Â½a.

Dan

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (12)

gjcore
13 years ago
I did okay this season on my water consumption. I've put a fair amount of work into altering the sprinkler system. Also I used alot of mulch in my beds. The wood chips, from the city yard, really seem to hold moisture in the soil. Also using a hand held moisture meter and the old watering can helped to keep the moisture levels somewhat constant.
billie_ladybug
13 years ago
See and here I figured out we were dry when the tumble weeds growing on the septic tank turned brown!

B
Related Discussions
Massive Spruce Beetle Outbreak In Colorado Caused By Drought
Q
Comments (22)
Brendon, I understand the concept, and if it were really the case that people were saying that fire suppression (whistling) was the primary trigger for the initiation of bark beetle outbreaks (tree death), then you might have a point. But no one says that, or at least it's not something that I've ever heard said or seen published among bark beetle specialists. And for that matter, the paper doesn't even report on whether there's a difference between the year without whistling (pre-fire-suppression) and the next. Based on their data sources, I doubt they had the statistical power to prove the negative. Drought stress is commonly considered to be a main trigger for regional conifer bark beetle outbreaks. But even when regional outbreaks are occurring, the susceptibility of a given stand to infestation is affected by that stand's structure and composition. Fire history is a factor that affects stand structure and composition. These points are well-supported in the literature for many systems. Back to your analogy, the idea that fire suppression could affect bark beetle susceptibility is not nearly as unlikely as the idea that whistling could affect tree death. There is a mechanistic connection. Also, these associations they're reporting are significant, but not absolute. For example, they find that 24% of the time that there was an AMO of at least 1.6, there was an outbreak in the study areas. Otherwise, when the AMO was This post was edited by saccharum on Wed, Oct 16, 13 at 23:50
...See More
US Drought Monitor July 5, 2011--100% Drought
Q
Comments (4)
Pat, La Nina ended several months ago but its dryness did serve as a 'set up' for the weather we're exepriencing now. When it ended, I was hoping for a quicker return to normalcy, to the extent that Oklahoma weather ever approaches anything resembling normalcy. We are in what is considered a neutral period in the ENSO (El Nino Southern Oscillation). Both El Nino and La Nina will influence our weather patterns during the period when they are active, and I often base planting decisions on the knowledge that an El Nino or a La Nina are occurring (when they are occurring) but they're only one of myriad influences on the weather patterns we have here and their influence can vary depending on other things that are going on. In my county we have drought at least 8 summers out of 10 and sometimes every summer....it is just that in rainier summers the drought will persist for a few weeks instead of a few months. This year reminds me a great deal of both the summer of 2003 (my county had less than 19" of rainfall that year) and the drought of 2005-2006, which I think had hotter weather than 2003 and more rainfall in each year, but not significantly more rain and not well-distributed rainfall. For example, we thought our 2005 drought had broken when we had 9.25" of rainfall in one day in April 2006, but by late June, all that moisture was gone, it was in fact only a distant memory, drought had returned and wildfires were occurring. The 2006 drought was horrendous and for us it didn't really, truly end until the floods began in 2007. I don't know how much this is true of the rest of Oklahoma because I've only lived here, but it seems like we rarely have normal, moderate weather, only extreme weather. We tend to be extremely dry for long periods of time and then suddenly we'll be extremely wet. The drought of 2003 really ended for us beginning in May 2004 when maybe 6 or 8" of rain fell in that month, but then it really and truly ended for sure when we had over a foot of rainfall in June. A foot of rain! You can't do much with that much water in such a short time except stay out of its way. Suddenly, plants that had struggled to survive in rock-hard, heavily-compacted clay, were sitting in water for weeks and weeks and weeks. Growing up in Texas, I was well familiar with the old folk saying "it takes a flood to end a drought" and I thought I knew what it meant. Then we moved to Oklahoma, and I quickly learned that both the droughts and floods we had experienced in Texas were child's play compared to what we experience here. However, since that time, a recurring drought pattern in Texas has been harder on them, especially last year and this year, than it has been on us here and has been much worse than anything I remember in Texas. I do remember 1980 was a horrible, dry, drought year in Texas but I don't think it was a dry as this year...although likely it was hotter. Fort Worth had well over 60 days of high temps at or over 100 degrees in 1980. Since moving here 13 years ago, I've observed a general trend of more extreme swings from hot/dry to wet and back again. Look at just this year in Oklahoma: many areas had record snowfall in the winter and quite a few recorded their coldest temperatures ever. Then we had an abrupt swing to hot temps...some of us were below freezing and snowy for 5 consecutive days and then once we warmed up, we went from below-freezing daytime highs one day to the upper 70s the next and the snow quickly melted. That's not typical. We had extreme hail over and over, and several outbreaks of very strong tornadoes. Some folks in eastern and northeastern OK had several weeks where they had up to 6 or 8 or 10" of rain in one week while the rest of us went up to a month with no recorded spring rainfall. How odd is that? Many parts of the state have had extreme drought and extreme wildfires. It is only July! What other 'surprises' does the weather hold for us this year, or maybe we're all past the point of being surprised? We've had some peculiar weather since moving here. For example, even though I grew up only 80 miles south of where I live now, I'd never experienced thundersnow or derecho winds until we moved here. Oklahoma is just full of surprises, and they aren't always pleasant surprises. I love this state and its people with my whole heart, but the weather can be quite vexing. Dawn
...See More
Free Seminar for Drought Tolerant Plants
Q
Comments (1)
I spoke with Keith Moore from West Feeds - he said if you are going to GPS the store use 7730 Dove Drive instead of 13758 Hwy 181 South. Guess CPS assigned the wrong address so you won't get to the right place.
...See More
Oklahoma Drought Monitor 09/08/2015: Drought Spreads
Q
Comments (3)
Our drought is minor and will pass. I'm not happy about it, but it is fairly typical any more for us to spend a portion of every year in some degree of drought no matter how rainy the rest of the year has been or ends up being. We have greened up a bit since the rain fell, and already were greening up some just because the temperatures are milder now. Heat is almost as responsible as drought for the browning of grasses and forbs, so we get relief just when the heat drops even if it doesn't rain much. I was out at a fire thing yesterday for about 5 or 5.5 hours and it was just about 3 or 3.5 miles from our house. I was shocked at how dry the area was despite the recent rainfall. Granted, the soil surface was moist but the plants still were dry, dry, dry. California? Oh my. I have no words. I look at how widespread and how deep their drought is and wonder how long the plants, wildlife and people can hang on with such low moisture. I know there are people in some areas whose wells have run dry and who are having to buy all their water and have it trucked in (if they have tanks to hold it) or have to haul it home in buckets or jugs. I can't imagine that. It is one thing to buy water if your water system is having trouble and the water, though technically meeting standards, is just crappy and looks bad or tastes bad so you choose to buy bottled water for drinking and cooking. (There's a lot of that in SE OK this year). It escalates to a whole new level, though, if you're having to truck in water for bathing and doing laundry and dishes. The western wildfires have been so awful all summer, and will go on for several more months yet, and not just in Cali but in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, etc. I bet some areas haven't had relatively clean air for months, and breathing in smoke all the time is so unhealthy. I hope El Nino brings them rain and drought relief, but we all know that it takes monster rains to end a monster drought, and the heavy rainfall they need will bring with it a lot of flooding, landslides, etc. and probably lots of heartache and heartbreak. On the other hand, if El Nino were somehow to oddly peter out or drop the rain in places it is not expected and then miss the areas that really need the rain, how long can California and the rest of the west carry on without drought relief? So, I hope El Nino helps them a lot and doesn't hurt them too much.
...See More
Skybird - z5, Denver, Colorado
13 years ago
ROFL! I like YOUR system, Billie! Who needs all this "scientific" stuff anyway? Great to see you back around here, and hope you'll have time to hang out now and then!

I'm surprised, since I was here every day this summer to water, water, water, that I never went up into the third (substantially more expensive than the first two) tier of water rates! I watered the perennials and the veggies a LOT---not that it helped, either, at all! I guess it was the heat, but this was a really poor year for veggies for me, and a mediocre--at best--year for the perennials.

The grass gets watered DEEPLY every 1 1/2 to 2 weeks, and if it doesn't want to die, it needs to keep looking for the moisture that's below it! It works! It doesn't look like the neighbor's, who waters almost every day (a little bit), but it's hangin' in there!

I wonder if we're gonna get DUMPED ON this winter! Dan, what's your best guess---I mean, what's your Expert Opinion on that?

Skybird
colokid
13 years ago
I am retired wheat farmer
I Still have friends in the business. They have not planted this fall because is is too dry. That means no winter wheat crop next year.
Explanation for the non farmer:
Winter wheat is planted in September. Can be planted later this fall if we get rain, but at a reduced yield.
msfuzz
13 years ago
Yeah, I couldn't keep up with the watering in my containers. First a late cold spring, then a blazing dry summer....Very few of anything for me!
gjcore
13 years ago
colokid said "They have not planted this fall because is too dry. That means no winter wheat crop next year."

What happens to the soil if there's no winter wheat?
gjcore
13 years ago
Speaking of drought really ties into the book I've been reading during the last week which is Collapse by Jared Diamond. I've also read his book Guns Germs and Steel.
david52 Zone 6
13 years ago
Record high heat out here, 87 today, 14% humidity, and I'm irrigating the grass on the west side of the place so it doesn't die.

Usually by now its cooled off so that the soil moisture isn't evaporating so quickly. Irrigation goes off Oct 15th.
Dan _Staley (5b Sunset 2B AHS 7)
Original Author
13 years ago
What happens to the soil if there's no winter wheat?

Usu one leaves stubble.

And what Billie said.

Our water is way up as I planted many more melons for the second-grader (she wanted another one today...) and the cukes went nuts a few weeks ago, and landscaping meant establishment/construction water. I tried to shower less often to make up for it, but the BH put the kibosh on that right quick ;o)

Dan
colokid
13 years ago
What happens to the soil if there's no winter wheat?
Depend on the soil. If sandy and no stubble or mulch it will blow badly. Modern farming tries to "stubble mulch" to leave a residue on the top.
I am so convinced to mulch every thing in a garden that I yell it to everyone who will listen. I did not this year and payed the price when my tomatoes burned up. I think soil temperature as well as moisture.
Kenny
bpgreen
13 years ago
In anticipation of September rains, I turned off the water to my irrigation system after I watered 8/15. We got .3 inches of rain in September so almost half my lawn is turning brown. But I'm sticking with my 3x a year watering schedule.
Dan _Staley (5b Sunset 2B AHS 7)
Original Author
13 years ago
Public release date: 1-Oct-2010

Contact: Meg Sullivan
msullivan@support.ucla.edu
310-825-1046
University of California -- Los Angeles

Ocean conditions likely to reduce Colorado River flows during this winter's drought The convergence in the coming year of three cyclical conditions affecting ocean temperatures and weather is likely to create unprecedented challenges for states that depend on water from the Colorado River, a new UCLA study suggests.

"If I were concocting a recipe for a perfect drought, this would be it," said Glen MacDonald, co-author of the study and director of UCLA's Institute of the Environment and Sustainability.

Along with a former graduate student, MacDonald has found that the combination of La NiÃ¯Â¿Â½a with two less commonly known ocean conditions Ã¯Â¿Â½ the Pacific Decadal Oscillation and the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation Ã¯Â¿Â½ tends to result in drought in the upper reaches of the Colorado River. The ocean conditions have been known to diminish precipitation in the Southwest but, examined separately, have proven to be poor indicators of drought conditions in the upper reaches of the river.

"It's the combination that's key," said lead author Abbie Tingstad, who conducted the research as a graduate student in geography at UCLA. She is now an associate physical scientist at the RAND Corp...

Dan

Related Stories

GARDENING GUIDES 10 Cold- and Heat-Tolerant Perennials and Shrubs for the Arid West

By Noelle Johnson Landscape Consulting

These flowering native plants shrug off the cold of winter and heat of summer while adding beauty to the drought-tolerant landscape

GARDENING GUIDES 10 Late-Winter and Early-Spring Bloomers for the West

By Noelle Johnson Landscape Consulting

Tired of waiting for spring to arrive? Try these drought-tolerant, flowering plants for color that starts in late winter

GARDENING GUIDES Great Design Plant: Ceanothus Pleases With Nectar and Fragrant Blooms

West Coast natives: The blue flowers of drought-tolerant ceanothus draw the eye and help support local wildlife too

GARDENING GUIDES 10 Drought-Tolerant Shrubs That Thrive in Full Sun and Reflected Heat

By Noelle Johnson Landscape Consulting

Got a hot spot in your garden where plants often die? Try these tough shrubs that add beauty while shrugging off the heat

GARDENING GUIDES Great Design Plant: Arbutus Menziesii

This drought-tolerant West Coast native tree thrives with minimal water in difficult garden spots

SAVING WATER Houzz Call: Are You Letting Go of Your Lawn?

By Annie Thornton

Many facing a drought are swapping turf for less thirsty plantings. If you’re one of them, we’d like to hear about it

GARDENING GUIDES 6 Plants for Colorful Fall Foliage in the Water-Wise Western Garden

By Noelle Johnson Landscape Consulting

Try these colorful, drought-tolerant additions to your garden for a fall season filled with color

DECORATING GUIDES Just In: 10 New Things to Make Eco-Living Easier

By Vanessa Brunner

Finds from The 2011 West Coast Green Conference

GARDENING GUIDES Great Design Plant: Mahonia Aquifolium for Birds

By Debbie Ballentine

Oregon grape puts on a bold spectacle from spring through winter and is ideal to brighten partly shady corners in the U.S. West

GARDENING AND LANDSCAPING Great Design Plant: Pacific Coast Iris

By Annie Thornton

Plant this West Coast native for stunning, intricate blooms from January through May

Sponsored

More Discussions

Hi everyone! Has anyone grown honeyberries (Haskap) at 8600’?

3

Spring 2024 Plant Swap - May 11 - Who Can Come?

38

Zone 5 and colder, which roses would you buy again

19

What kind of trees are these? My pup doesn’t feel well-maybe due trees

7

Veggie Steps 2024

5