Catalina, AZ, 2024-25 Water Year Progress Report through August: “Read It and Weep”

During the sport’s columnist, Jim Murray’s time at the Los Angeles Times, they had a weekend listing of all the upsets titled, “Read’em and Weep.” I’ve pinched that title for this water year’s dreadful total; truly an “upset.”  No one saw a WY as deficient as this one coming.  Neighbors are putting out tubs of water for wildlife.  However, the near inch of rain a week ago has spawned a desert greening, with even summer poppies being spotted.  The free range cattle now have their noses on the ground scarfing up as much of this skin of greening as they can.  Pig weeds are already sprouting seeds at only 2-3 inches high!  I guess they know they have to do that when it’s this late and further moisture around here is a crap shoot.  Thankfully, too, the greening has muted the possibility of strong erosion that goes with all the bare ground we’ve had which has completely disappeared in many areas of the desert.

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Author: Art Rangno

Retiree from a group specializing in airborne measurements of clouds and aerosols at the University of Washington (Cloud and Aerosol Research Group). The projects in which I participated were in many countries; from the Arctic to Brazil, from the Marshall Islands to South Africa.

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