Recently a friend and fellow pagan asked me how the weather was doing in our area. Wanting to stave off a distressing topic, I did what I usually do in this situation – waved my hands at her and said “fine”.
Really, though, the weather has been anything BUT fine. Across Alberta there is a high chance of drought. There was drought last year, but that’s nothing new:
You can see in the table that my area (Edson) had a substantial differential from the historic “normal” in 2003. So drought was a recurring theme in my childhood. Drought, disease, hay crisis – it’s a miracle (or a combination of blind luck/idiocy) that we’ve survived as long as we have. This year, though, things looks really bad. Or, to put it visually:
This is what it looks like now (precipitation-ally speaking). Yellowhead County (my area) is is red. To compare:
And that’s what it’s supposed to look like. Nice and lush and green. But it’s not.
In other words… drought. It’s the new normal. And what does my government do? Well, they’re concerned, but that’s about it. In the meantime, it looks as if we’re going to have to resort to FITFIR (first in time, first in right – basically, water access is developed on an I-was-here-first basis). Which could leave many metro areas kind of thirsty.
Perhaps this will change how we plan things. Or maybe not. But I do know it’s not a good time to be a farmer. So pray, pray, pray for rain.
