Drought Broken! 2006 Style

Everything is Relative

July, 2006 In a four year drought, and rains came.

August, 2018 and the rains have come again. Just not so much.

I was ecstatic. This is what I wrote in 2006... with a few follow up comments from 2018.

White text = 2006
Yellow text = 2018


The Great New Mexico Drought [What did I know about "great" re droughts?] is cracked. Not broken, mind you, just cracked. [So I guess this year the current drought is just bent.]

Here in this marvelous little microclimate called “The East Mountains”  - the east side of the mountains east of Albuquerque; actually the Sandias, Manzanitas and Manzanos - and especially in this valley where I live, in the Manzanitas close to the north boundary of the Isleta Reservation, we have caught a break. 

The rains have come and come and come [2018: They come just once at a time mostly this year, short, intense thundershowers. Not much of that closely packed storms stuff.]    ] In the last three weeks, more than six inches of rain (and hail and sleet!) have fallen. [Here in 2018, we got three inches, spread over the whole month of July.]

The crunchy grasses and crackling pine needles have grown soft. Green of every shade has sprung from the plants and the ground itself, and all things with roots are rejoicing.  [Some of the same this year, only a full month and a half later and much less greenery, way fewer wildflowers.]

I’m not sure how long it takes to rehydrate the cores of thick ponderosa trunks (they were only 25% of what they should have been in interior moisture – Roman candles awaiting ignition), but they have got to be on their way. Most of this water has soaked into the ground very quickly after each rain, bathing their roots. [I've heard tree trunk hydration numbers this year as low as 15%. No root bathing. Maybe a sponge bath.]

Only in the last few days have puddles started to persist and real mud begun to develop. [Very few puddles and almost no mud even in this slightly good Monsoon, 2018. Every drop just soaks right in.] The dry creeks along the bottom of our valley have been running for days. [Nary a trickle so far this year.]  Both are indicators that water is even headed down toward the stressed aquifers through every crack and fracture in our geology. Saved wells! [Our  well went dry seven years later,  2013, so not saved. Dang it.]

Alas the BIG drought – the shortfalls of 40% per year for the last six years - the reservoirs at 15% of normal depths, the rivers that have become isolated puddles full of dying creatures – is not broken. It will take several years of above-average precipitation to break this jackal’s back. [Alas, the jackal was  only fended off until the current drought slunk in, meaner and nastier than ever, five years ago.]

But thank the Lord, thank heavens, thank Nature, thank The Rain Turtle for this mid summer respite. [And thank all those deities again for this bit of respite we are having right now. Grateful, we are. This is just a bit of comparative reporting.]

Now to the title: All of my cisterns have been full for over a week. Four big tanks with a capacity of 5000 gallons, full to overflowing. If I had 10,000 gallons capacity, it would be overflowing.  It seemed ridiculous in 2002 to install that many tanks, but now I know. One must build for the extraordinary, old knowledge that must be relearned so often that we all look foolish. [We're up to 8500 gallons in cisterns now, and longing for another 1600. Having the capacity is more important than ever since our rain patterns are becoming more short/intense, and it's catch it or lose it.]

Expanding my capacities.

Here's the original post from 2006, complete with pictures of rain and cisterns. Even another one of me.