Tuesday, August 23, 2011

The Great Texas Desert?

That is what it seems like here in Dallas this year.  After 56 days of 100+ temperatures and no end in sight it is a valid question, "is Texas becoming a desert?"

I did a little digging and found that the Chihuahuan Desert in South West Texas gets just under 17 inches of rainfall on average and though this is far more than some other spots in Texas, the amount of water that evaporates from the area far exceeds the rainfall (evapotranspiration), thus the desert conditions. This year in Dallas we have had only a little over 20 inches of rain and none in the forecast.  That puts us over 11 inches behind our yearly average.

Though in Dallas this year we had a wet spring, right now the primary color of the landscape is brown.  My grass is a nice crispy tan and most likely will stay that way until the fall.  It makes me wonder if I shouldn't pull out the lawn and out in a rock garden like the folks in Las Vegas do.  No water needed, and the desert plants  used for landscaping do just fine even through a few harsh winters. 

Maybe we could just add a few casinos and become the entertainment capital of the South?

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