Just what we need...Government weather researchers say the parched summer of 1998 may be the beginning of a new Dust Bowl. Reported in today's Charlotte Observer...

http://www.charlotte.com/1216drought.htm

It happens about twice a century and we're overdue. Sometime in the next century, they expect a megadrought lasting a couple decades...

-- Shimrod (shimrod@lycosmail.com), December 16, 1998

Answers

Shimrod,

Your posting is off-topic for this forum. It belongs in some other forum such as Weather Discussion.

For a listing of the other www.greenspun.com discussion forums, see Welcome to LUSENET.

-- No Spam Please (anon@ymous.com), December 16, 1998.

Shimrod, Your post is legitimate here, thank you. I saw the same news report last night. There are certainly enough posts here on preparing. Your post alerts those not relocated, like Ed Yourdon, of the need to beware of the dust bowl region.

-- BBrown (peace2u@bellatlantic.net), December 16, 1998.

On the contrary, No Spam....

Any natural calamity that affects the ability of local regions to grow the food they use certainly DOES concern us post-y2k. Even if your personal y2k scenario doesn't go 8-10, a crop-killing drought in Iowa or KS, or other parts of the breadbasket on top of y2k disruptions = a much bigger mess.

Remember, the Southwest Anasazi were a properous civilization about 100,000 strong in 1200 AD, (their wonderful cliff-built homes still stand), but they disappeared in a mere 100 years during a drought cycle -- reduced to cannibalism and bereft of the pottery, building skills, and art that had characterized their life.

And they didn't even have computers to worry about....

Anita Evangelista

-- Anita Evangelista (ale@townsqr.com), December 16, 1998.

This is very pertinent to those planning to use roof water run-off. It's hard to collect what isn't there. May also have an impact on water table depths.

-- lparks (lparks@eurekanet.com), December 16, 1998.

Water is in my top three items to have. It is of interest to all here. Gardens depend on rain water, and we might ,too.

-- Bill (bill@microsoft.com), December 16, 1998.

Just goes to show you. Everything is connected. (Well, almost everything,)

-- Tom Carey (tomcarey@mindspring.com), December 16, 1998.

BBrown, Anita, lparks, Bill,

That water is necessary for life, and Y2K is related to life, does not make meteorology on-topic for this forum. This Dust Bowl posting could have been made to a meteorology forum, and a reference to that forum posted here.

Shall we have threads on the relative merits of public and private school systems in southwestern Colorado towns, just because some of us may consider relocating there? Property tax rate comparisons? Where do you draw a line?

Anita> Any natural calamity that affects the ability of local regions to grow the food they use certainly DOES concern us post-y2k. Even if your personal y2k scenario doesn't go 8-10, a crop-killing drought in Iowa or KS, or other parts of the breadbasket on top of y2k disruptions = a much bigger mess.

By that reasoning, this TimeBomb 2000 (Y2000) forum should be open to discussion of any and all natural calamities -- is that to be acceptable?

My contention is that there is a difference between (a) Y2K topics and (b) ones personal concerns when deciding upon changes one might make in ones life because of potential Y2K problems, "ordinary" concerns that are not really related to Y2K itself.

Shall we have a thread comparing moving companies? If someone contends that certain moving companies are not Y2K-ready, that's OK with me. But without a Y2K connection, that topic belongs elsewhere.

-- No Spam Please (anon@ymous.com), December 17, 1998.

Hhmm, meteorologists predict huge dust bowl ... moving...

On that basis, I would choose *not* to relocate in the dust bowl region. Moving away from scorched earth after 2000 might be very difficult. We don't know if gas, U-Haul, etc. will be accessible.

Farming, water, anything interferring with self-sufficiency seems to be includable on the fringe of Y2K. Hard to know the parameters.

Leska
xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxx

-- Leska (allaha@earthlink.net), December 17, 1998.

No Spam your record seems to be stuck in the same groove......over and over......who made you god of the forum anyway? Time to take your medicine.

-- Heather (no@thanks.anyway), December 17, 1998.

So let me flip it to Y2K and farming.

All irrigation systems across the middle of the nation (aquifiers and surface water) rely completely on pumps (regional power) and dams to get the water to the fields. If no power, or power is intermittent as late as March-April, you could see real problems getting summer whaet harvested later in the year. Vegetables, CA Central Valley, truck farms elsewhere could also suffer if irrigation power is lost.

Other farming impacts from Y2K? Many. Including seed supply, transportation, food processing (no tator tots! No cereal! No milk!), food distribution, gasoline for tractors, etc. Fertilizer, pesticides, fungicides, other controls will affect farm profitability. With lower or no profits, no farmers.

-- Robert A. Cook, P.E. (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), December 17, 1998.

Heather, I'll take your response as a vote for the proposed "Southwestern Colorado Public/Private School System Comparisons" thread. :-)

-- No Spam Please (anon@ymous.com), December 17, 1998.

No Spam, where's my apology?

-- Heather (no@thanks.anyway), December 17, 1998.

Heather, I'm sorry.

-- No Spam Please (anon@ymous.com), December 19, 1998.