Posted on 06/15/2006 10:13:57 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
NEW ORLEANS - After most of New Orleans sat submerged in water for weeks after Hurricane Katrina, the eight months since Oct. 1 have been the driest southern Louisiana has been during the 111 years that records have been kept, the state climatologist says.
Since October, most of the southern half of the state has averaged just 21 inches of rain, down from the usual 40-inch average, climatologist Barry Keim said. The National Weather Service says the rest of June promises more of the same.
"We're in what's called extreme drought," Keim said of the state's record-breaking dry spell. "We've really been suffering here, especially since Katrina."
Without the once-dependable daily showers, lawns have browned, rice and sugar cane crops are suffering and residents have emptied store shelves of hoses and other irrigation devices.
The increase in watering could stress city and parish pumping systems, and officials fear they could break because of ground subsidence caused by the lack of rain.
"A tropical storm would do wonders for us right now," Keim said. "A weak one, of course."
The forecast for rest of the month calls for little or no rain, said Mike Shields, senior forecaster at the National Weather Service office in Slidell. Shields said there will be a chance for only spotty showers over the weekend.
"And then until the end of the month, it looks like the same pattern of high pressure still over us and keeping us dry," he said.
Southern Louisiana had been abnormally dry for about five months before the storm made landfall Aug. 29., Keim said.
"The drought was interrupted, if you will, by Katrina, and we went back into the drought pattern. Then we got that deluge from Rita. And as soon as that storm left, we went right back into the drought pattern," he said.
Normally, humidity rises into the sky, forming a cloud and then rain. But Keim said a stable structure of atmosphere is hanging over the region, preventing the moisture from rising, similar to the atmospheric conditions in normally arid states.
"For whatever reason, this dome of upper pressure in the atmosphere seems displaced east by a few hundred miles," Keim said.
The National Weather Service predicts that rain in the area will return to normal levels over the next three months. But Keim said such predictions typically can be way off.
"We're crossing our fingers," forecaster Tim Destri said. "We can't say for sure, but we see some hope of getting back to the typical summer pattern."
WOW, just days after being cleared, Rove is drying out New Orleans
is there no limits to this man?
Our normal convective rain pattern has not yet set in to bring daily showers along the coastal zones. This happens about every five years or so.
*but only if Republicans are in office.
It's Gore's fault. In his movie he predicts that global warming will cause more hurricanes. As we know, the minute Gore predicts anything, especially about the weather, events swerve in the opposite direction. So, expect no storms in NOLA in the immediate future.
In the past, droughts were measured in months and years, today, they're measured in days and weeks.
Weather has become climate to the professional worriers.
Even in the Bible there were "seven lean years".
I declare a drought when I step on my lawn and it goes "crunch!" and that may have only been a week without rain.
Here in Mississippi, we are over 21" below normal rainfall for the year, I guess that makes us drier than Louisianna, that according to the article is 19" short.
What about '99? It didn't rain for 7 months that spring summer fall! It hasn't been that long yet!
Interesting. Here in the Florida Keys, where we were hit last summer by Hurricanes Dennis, Katrina, Rita and Wilma...we just went through the driest 6 month period on record. From November of 2005 until May of 2006, less than one inch of rain fell here, the norm would have been 12 inches or so.
Wilma's storm surge saturated our soil with salt and we never had the benefit of rain to wash it away. Thankfully we have now entered the rainy season and things are starting to look a bit greener.
They can have as mch of the rain as they want from our surplus in NE Ct. I'm sick of the crap.
Maybe someone needs to open a levee???
I lived 28 years in California where we just painted the lawn and jumped in the pool.
The weird thing is usually the Spring is littered with rainy weeks where you have rain fr a few days straight. So far it's only been a day hear and there and very far spaced.
You might be a Cajun if...
...you start an angel food cake with a roux.
...watching the "wild kingdom" inspires you to write a cookbook.
...you think the head of the united nations is boudreaux/ boudreax-guillory.
...you think a lobster is a crawfish on steriods.
...you think ground hog day and boucherie day are the same holiday.
...you take a bite of 5-alarm texas chili and reach for the tabasco.
...fred's lounge in mamou means more to you than the grand ole opry.
...you pass up a trip abroad to go to the crawfish festival in breaux bridge.
...your children's favorite bedtime story begins "first you make a roux..."
...your description of a gourmet dinner includes the words "deep fat fried."
...your mama announces each morning, "well, I've got the rice cooking-what will we have for dinner?"
...you greet your long lost friend at the lafayette international airport with "iiiiieeeeeee!"
...you sit down to eat boiled crawfish and your host says "don't eat the dead ones" and you know what he means.
...you don't know the real names of your friends, only their nicknames.
...you gave up tabasco for lent.
...you know the difference between zatarains, zeringue, and zydeco.
...your dog thinks the bed of your pickup is his kennel.
...any of your dessert recipes call for jalapenos.
...you consider opelousas the capital of the state, and lafayette the capital of the nation.
...you think the four seasons are: duck, rabbit, deer, squirrel.
A Cajun would NEVER say...
..."Ill take Shakespeare for 1000, Alex."
..."Duct tape won't fix that."
..."Come to think of it, I'll have a Heineken."
..."I've got two cases of Zima for the Superbowl."
..."You can't feed that to the dog."
..."No kids in the back of the pickup truck, it's not safe!"
..."She's too old to be wearing that."
..."Here's an episode of Hee-Haw I haven't seen."
..."Give me the small bag of cracklins."
..."Deer heads detract from the decor."
...Little Debbie snack cakes have too many fat grams."
..."Trim the fat off that steak."
..."The tires on your truck are too big."
..."I'll have the arugula, mandarin orange and radicchio salad with the balsamic vinaigrette."
..."I've got it all saved on a floppy disk."
..."Unsweetened tea tastes better."
..."Would you like your seafood platter poached or broiled?"
..."I couldn't find a thing at Wal-Mart today."
You're in Cajun country when...
...Your glasses fog up when you step outside.
...You were in high school before you realized that Catholic and Public were not the two major religions.
...You will eat foods that are purple, green & gold.
...Your baby's first words are "boudin"
...You're at Mardi Gras when it starts to rain and you cover your drink rather than your head.
...You take Community Coffee & Tabasco with you on vacation.
...You are not alarmed at finding plastic dolls in your pastry.
...You put "Tony's" on everything!!
...You go out of state and can't find one drive-thru daiquiri shop.
...You eat cracklins for breakfast.
...All the people in public office are known as "Dud, Moon, Cat, Duffy, or Dutch."
...You keep newspapers not for recycling but for tablecloths at crawfish boils.
...You know that the best doughnuts are square and have no holes.
...You exhibit "doubloon reflex" by stomping on a runaway quarter with your foot.
You know you are from Louisiana if:
...When out of town, you stop and ask someone where there is a drive-thru daiquiri place, and they look at you like you have three heads.
...The crawdad mounds in your front yard have overtaken the grass.
...You greet people with "Howyamomma'an'em?" and hear back "Dey fine, !".
...Every so often, you have waterfront property.
...You learned to drive a boat before you could drive a car.
...You know the meaning of a "Delcambre Reeboks" (That would be a pair of all white fishing boots).
...You offer somebody a "coke" and then ask them what kind: Coca-Cola, Dr. Pepper, Pepsi, 7Up?
...You can name all of your 3rd cousins.
...You can plan your wedding around hunting season & LSU football.
...Your burial plot is six feet over rather than six feet under.
...When you refer to a geographical location "way up North", you are referring to places like Shreveport, Little Rock or Memphis, "where it gets real cold"!
...You're not afraid when someone wants to "ax you something".
...You don't worry when you see ships riding higher in the river than the top of your house.
...The waitress at your local sandwich shop tells you a fried oyster po-boy "dressed" is healthier than a Caesar salad.
...You know the definition of "dressed".
...The smell of a crawfish boil turns you on more than HBO.
...You don't realize until high school what a "county" is.
...You can eat Popeye's, Haydel's and Zapp's for lunch and wash it down with Barq's and several Abitas, without losing it all on your stoop.
...You have a ditch on at least one side of your property.
...You prefer skiing on the bayou.
...You assume everyone has mosquito swarms in their backyard.
...You like your rice and politics dirty.
...You pronounce the largest city in the state as "Newawlins".
...You know an old person that can "treat" you for warts.
...You know those big roaches can fly, but you're able to sleep at night anyway.
...You can't think of anybody that can cook better than your momma.
...You know when it's appropriate to use "Tony Chachere's".
...When you're in Baton Rouge you know the difference between the old bridge & the new bridge.
...Your last name isn't pronouned the way it's spelled.
...You have spent a summer afternoon on the Lake Pontchartrain seawall catching blue crabs.
You know you're a native Noo Awleanian if:
...your sunglasses fog up when you step outside.
...no matter where else you go in the world, you are always disappointed in the food.
...your loved one dies and book a jazz band before you call the coroner.
...your accent sounds nothing like Harry Connick, Jr's.
...your baby's first words are "long beads".
...you were a high school graduate before you realized that Catholic and Public were not two major religions.
...you ask, "How they running?" and "Are they fat?" but, you're inquiring about seafood quality and not the Crescent City Classic.
...when a hurricane is imminent, you have a lot more faith in Nash Roberts than some Super Doppler 6000.
...your town is low on the education chart, high on the obesity chart and you don't care because you're No. 1 on the party chart.
...nothing shocks you. Period. Ever.
...your one-martini lunch becomes a five Bloody Mary afternoon ... and you keep your job.
...being in a traffic jam at Tulane and Broad isn't the same as being stuck in traffic.
...you're walking in the French Quarter with a plastic cup of beer; when it starts to rain, you cover your beer instead of your head.
...your idea of health food is a baked potato instead of fries with your seafood platter.
...you believe Ronnie Virgits should be Archbishop.
...you have to take your coffee and favorite coffeemaker with you on a three-day trip.
...you exhibit the "doubloon reflex" by stomping runaway coins with your foot.
...you have sno-ball stains on your shoes.
...you call tomato sauce "red gravy."
...your middle name is your mother's maiden name, or your father's mother's maiden name, or your mother's mother's maiden name, or your grandmother's mother's maiden name, or your grandfather's mother's maiden name.
...your know you recycled too much newspaper when there isn't enough for the dinner (or crawfish) table.
...you are going through customs and the agent asks you where you're from and you answer "Gentilly."
...on certain Spring days, Crawfish Monica is your breakfast.
...your house payment is less than your utility bill.
...you've done your laundry in a bar.
...you push little old ladies out of the way to catch Mardi Gras throws.
...you look forward to being smashed by a hurricane.
...you don't show your "pretties" during Mardi Gras.
...catching "crabs" makes you smile.
...you write "crookedpolitician" as all one word.
...you know it's ask but you purposely say "ax".
...you understand it when someone describes their favorite color as K&B purple.
...you know how to mispronounce street names correctly (Melpormene, Terpsichore, Chartres, etc.)
...you know that Tchoupitoulas is a street and not a disease.
...you "boo" the mayor on national television.
...beignets are the major cause of your gallstones.
...you wear sweaters in October because it ought to be cold.
...someone asks you, "where y'at?" and you tell them how you are.
...you are left behind at an out-of-town bar searching for a "go cup".
...you think of potholes as naturally occurring speed bumps.
...your grandparents are called "Maw Maw" and "Paw Paw".
...your Santa Claus rides an alligator and your favorite Saint is a football player.
...the naming of an insanely comic fictional Lucky Dog salesman after the founder of the Jesuits makes you reflect, "Well, who else?"
...you shake out your shoes before putting them on.
...you're afraid to move away because you won't be able to make Sugar Busters groceries.
...you know why you should never, ever swim by the Lake Pontchartrain steps.
...you cringe every time you hear an actor with a Southern or Cajun accent in a "New Orleans-based" movie or TV show.
...you have to reset your clocks after every thunderstorm.
...you waste more time navigating back streets than you would if you just sat in traffic.
...you still call the Fairmont Hotel the Roosevelt.
...you consider garbage cans a legal step to protecting your parking space on a public street.
...you fall asleep to the soothing sounds of four box fans.
...you ignore cockroaches because you know the only ones you could kill are the weak or infirmed, and it would only serve to strengthen the breed.
Things you will NEVER hear a Southern man say:
...I thought Graceland was tacky.
...Wrestlings Fake.
...Honey, did you mail that donation to Greenpeace?
...We're vegetarians.
...Do you think my gut is to big?
...I'll have grapefruit and grapes instead of biscuits and gravy.
...Honey, we don't need another dog.
...Spittin' is such a nasty habit.
...Cappuccino tastes better than espresso.
...My fiancee, Bobbie Jo, is registered at Tiffany's.
...Checkmate.
...I don't have a favorite college team.
...You All.
And, the Number One thing you'll NEVER hear a Southern Man say:
...Nope, no more for me. I'm drivin' tonight.
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