Our Drought is Severe Plus

Quote of the day:
“You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake.”
--Jeannette Rankin

New Rule of the day (apologies to Bill Maher):
No one is allowed to be intransigent unless he can spell it.

I usually don’t watch morning TV, other than to quickly check that there hasn’t been an international catastrophe while I was sleeping.

This morning, though, I casually flipped on the “Today” show. Question: how old is Gene Shalit? Hasn’t he been around since the days of J. Fred Muggs?

Weatherman Al Roker showed a drought map that used color coding to show how dry different parts of the country are.

It struck me that the five levels of drought were labeled Abnormally dry, moderate, severe, extreme, and exceptional.

The mid-point of drought measurement is “severe.” The New Oxford Dictionary defines “severe” as “very great, intense.” That sounds pretty bad to me.

Yet there are not one but two measured levels beyond “severe.” I thought maybe this was hyperbole. But then I realized this is science, after all.

To see the drought monitor map, click here. It shows “exceptional” drought from central Alabama through the far western tip of Virginia. “Extreme” drought is shown in several areas, with the biggest being southern California and southwestern Arizona.

More and more people must be concerned about this, or Al Roker wouldn’t be talking about it on the “Today” show.