By Hilaire Avril, Regional Information Officer, EU Humanitarian Aid. Cuba has been fighting one of the toughest droughts in a century for the past three years. Declining and erratic rainfall, increasingly long periods between rainy seasons and dry spells caused by the El Niño phenomenon, have affected more than 50% of the island’s territory. “The frequency and severity of droughts in the Caribbean region have been increasing steadily in the past years, and – like other hazards such as hurricanes; one needs to prepare for and address these recurrent events,” says Virginie André, who coordinates EU Humanitarian Aid programmes for the Caribbean. The situation has a direct impact on the water level of the dams – throughout the country dam levels are below 50% of capacity. Although a staggering 141 of Cuba’s 168 municipalities have been affected, Central and Eastern Cuba have been hit particularly hard. “More than 1 million…

PARIS, May 22 (Reuters) – No French man has lifted the Musketeers’ Cup in over three decades and there is no sign of the frustrating and painful wait ending for one of tennis’s leading nations at this year’s French Open. A lack of consistency at the highest level, fragile bodies and an outstanding generation barring their way make it difficult to imagine a French successor to their last men’s singles champion Yannick Noah any time soon at Roland Garros. After it became an international tournament in 1925, the first eight titles went to French men — but since then, they have claimed only two titles, Marcel Bernard winning in 1946 and Noah in 1983. “If you want a chance to win the French Open, you need to arrive full of confidence, having won great matches on the surface and, let’s face it, it is not happening with the French male players,” former French technical director Patrice Hagelauer, the coach who led Noah to the title, told Reuters. “For the French Open especially you need to be in top shape physically and mentally. “Gael (Monfils) played the odd semi-final but then you’ve already reached your maximum and in the quarter or semi-finals, they hold on for a set or two.” Since Noah beat Mats Wilander 34 years ago, only the mercurial Henri Leconte…

For healthy college football programs, the NFL Draft is a celebration of success. In seven rounds stretched across four days, players become walking ad campaigns for their school as they begin their professional careers on national television. For Tennessee, that’s what made the last two years so hard. The Vols, a program that leads the SEC with 337 all-time draft picks, haven’t had a player hear his name called since 2014, when Ja’Wuan James went in the first round and Zach Fulton and Daniel McCullers were both grabbed in the sixth round. Painful, hard-to-watch shutouts followed in 2015 and 2016. “Those were tough years to go through,” Bob Welton, Tennessee’s director of player personnel, told GoVols247 on Wednesday. “It wasn’t a lot of fun being in the SEC and at Tennessee and draft day comes along and you end up going golfing or something, because you have nothing to watch for. “Those aren’t fun.” (Want the latest scoop on Tennessee football and basketball? Make sure you’re in the loop — take five seconds to sign up for our FREE Vols newsletter now!)…

WORCESTER – For the first time in nearly a year, as of Monday, the city will no longer be in any kind of drought status. Paul J. Moosey, commissioner of public works and parks, said as a result of the steady rainfall in recent weeks the city’s water supply status is being upgraded out of the current Stage 1 drought alert to a non-drought status. He said the decision was based on current conditions and improved forecasts. “The drought is effectively over,” Mr. Moosey said. The commissioner said the city’s reservoir system reached an overall capacity of 96.3 percent on May 1. He said while that remains slightly below the average May 1 capacity of 100 percent, it is a marked improvement over where it was as recent as six months ago. On Nov.1, the reservoir system was at 50.1 percent capacity – the lowest for Nov. 1 in 50 years. In comparison, the system is typically at around 77…

Editor’s note: Caprock Chronicles is written or edited by Paul Carlson, emeritus professor of history at Texas Tech. This week’s essay reviews a 2,000 year-long drought on the Southern High Plains and its causes and results. “Altitherma” is a geological and climatic designation for an extensive period of drought that occurred across the Great Plains beginning about 6,500 years ago (or 4,500 BCE). Also known by experts as the Atlantic Climate Phase or the Holocene Climate Optimum, the long — 2,000-year —i ntermittent dry spell brought changes to what some call the North American shortgrass steppe, including, writes Margaret Bickers, “the South Plains, the Llano Estacado and the High Plains of eastern New Mexico and Colorado into northern Kansas.” Bison and other large fauna left the region for a while and people followed, moving east to wetter country or west to higher elevations. Many did not return to the plains, writes Bickers, “for several thousand years.” During the long drought, tallgrass prairie characteristic of the region gave way to shortgrass steppe, and in the most severe instances the short grasses tended to give way to desert shrubs and near-desert conditions. Some places became nearly bare of vegetation, and, accordingly, a few scientists argue that during the long Altithermal a western Great Basin desert culture emerged on the Great Plains. The Altithermal event occurred on the Llano Estacado during what many archaeologists call the “Archaic” period, about 8,500 years ago to about 2,000 years ago. For our area, many scholars subdivide the Archaic into three chronological parts with the big drought coming in the middle of the three (6,500 years ago to about 4,500 years ago), well after glaciers at the end of the “ice age” had retreated. Not unlike drought in our area in the 1930s and 1950s, during the Altithermal wind picked up soil from the thinning ground. This time, however, the wind through two millennia deposited the material in dunes, draws, and valleys, helping to create some of the huge local dunes and choking off and filling-in the upper Yellow House and Blackwater draws of the ancient Portales River Valley. Moreover, as grasses thinned, bison and other large mammals on the plains declined in number and moved elsewhere. Archaic-age people living in the area adapted. Many left. Others turned more and more to plant foods and hunted smaller animals, such as pronghorns and jackrabbits. Those who remained probably tended to stay near streams and rivers that held permanent water sources. The Lubbock Lake site, for example, held water during the Altithermal, and the archaeological record suggests it supported a human population throughout the long drought. Causes for the Altithermal are not precisely known. Increased sun spot activity is one theory. Most theories suggest changes in atmospheric air masses and wind patterns. Three air masses characterize much of the interior of North America: the Arctic, the Tropical Maritime and the Mild Pacific. The dry Mild Pacific air mass dominates the Great Plains for about 50 percent of the year and probably accounts for the grassland environment. It occurs through much of the winter and part of the summer, times when the region receives very little rainfall. Arctic and Tropical Maritime air masses carrying greater precipitation intrude on the Mild Pacific in late winter and early summer, bringing rain in the spring. Also the Tropical Maritime, which brings rains to the eastern prairies, sometimes intrudes in early autumn into the Mild Pacific, bringing rain in late summer and early fall. Seasonal changes in the three air masses, governed in part by the waxing waning of the upper tropic and sub-tropic jet streams, impact rainfall amounts. A year-round dominance of the Mild Pacific results in severe drought. In the case of the Altithermal, a major shift in the three…

Colorado experienced a mix of continued improving drought conditions for the north central part of the state, while abnormally dry conditions expanded in western Colorado. Moderate drought that, one week ago, had impacted portions of eight counties, has receded to only northeast Park county thanks to recent rain and snow storms. Abnormally dry conditions are now reported for all or parts of Larimer, Weld, Boulder, Gilpin, Clear Creek, Park, Teller, El Paso, Elbert, Douglas, Jefferson, Broomfield, Adams,…

If you are planning to obtain a California Department of Food and Agriculture Cannabis Cultivation (CalCannabis) License beginning on January 1, 2018, you must provide documentation of your water supply source with your cultivation license application. Certain water diversion types require completion and submittal of special forms to the State Water Resource Control Board (State Water Board) by June 30, 2017. Some water right types, including Small Irrigation Use Registrations and existing Water Right Permits do not require information to be submitted to the State Water Board by this date. Please review the Cannabis Cultivation licensing requirements for additional information. In accordance with the Business and Professions Code Section 19332.2 (b), CalCannabis requires cultivators to provide documentation to the State Water Board – Division of Water Rights by June 30, 2017 for the following situations: Water is already being diverted under a riparian right. An Initial Statement of Diversion and Use must be…

Thirteen years ago, Scotty Yount and Jeff Munier were assistant baseball coaches at Olive Branch. Coincidentally, 2004 was the last time Munford made a state baseball tournament. And now the Cougars are going back to the ‘Boro after Yount’s starter Corey Simmons held his good friend’s team Collierville to just two hits in a 6-0 AAA sectional victory Friday at Munford. “We’ve talked about one day what it would be like to maybe play each other with a chance to go to the state tournament,” Yount said. “I think probably most people thought it would be Collierville.” The perception may be in part due to Munford’s 21-16 record. But — as Yount points out — the Cougars “ran through a gauntlet” that should make them very competitive when the…

Beech baseball ends 35-year drought, is state bound.
Since he was 14 years old, Ty Sutley knew he wanted to end the drought for Beech baseball.
“(It’s) unreal.
It’s something we’ve talked about since we were freshmen.
We talked about how good our class was and we thought we had a legitimate chance,” said Sutley.
Heal the drought.” The last time the program was in the state tournament was in 1982, when Beech won its first and only AAA baseball title.
Sutley got to hear about that experience first-hand from his dad, Eric Sutley, who was a member of that team.
“When I was 14 years old, he told me how hard it is to win a state championship, because I was just getting into high school ball,” Sutley said.
And we are going back.” Finally ending the streak after 35 years, almost seems fated with the son of a member of the 1982 Buccaneers championship team, which just happened to be honored at the start of this season.
“There’s been a lot of expectations over the Beech program over the years and it’s not me.

Water Usage Has Not Returned to Pre-Drought Levels.
"We couldn’t even sell desert plants during the drought.
Now, the plant nursery is back open — after more frequent periods of rainfall.
"So of course, it’s much, much better now, but people are still concerned about water uses.
Many of them are still asking about plants that are easier to care for and don’t require as much water," Smith said.
Smith’s customers’ business patterns seem to match water usage patterns in the City of Wichita Falls.
"But, we started to see it increase back to somewhat normal levels, but we are still lower than we were before we went into the drought," Daniel Nix, Utilities Operations Manager, said.
"It never got over 600 million for the month and in July and August we are typically around a billion gallons a month," Nix said.
"We still are not seeing the level of people buying the enormous quantities of bedding plants that they bought before the drought," Smith said.
"We were in a drought for four years — and so if you learn a habit and you do it for four years, you’re not just going to wake up one day and stop doing that," Nix said.