We are always going to have droughts.
What often gets overlooked when a city is in a drought situation such as this, is how it psychologically impacts those living in the city.
A drought that has been going on for weeks, months, or years can have a domino effect on people’s lives and the ways they interact.
Sometimes, it results in people doing things they would never even consider if there were no drought conditions.
He was upset; the tenants were angry, and the neighbors were distressed watching this all unfold.
Chicago has conducted studies that find the number of homicides and violent crimes all increase when it gets hotter.
Neighbors start watching each other .
People start watching how others are using their water.
Using cleaning solutions without water results in chemical residue building up on surfaces.
Droughts can have a severe impact on mental health and cause people to do things they might never even consider.

Dry and mild conditions are in store for much of Brazil, as well as areas along the Pacific coast this winter.
Dryness to bring drought concerns to Brazil While winter is typically the driest time of the year for Brazil, much of the country will be drier than normal this season, including some of the country’s croplands.
The dryness will result in a growing drought concern, especially in some of the southeastern areas.
Mato Grosso is one of Brazil’s largest corn-producing states, and the worsening drought could cause this winter’s harvest to be up to 15 percent below normal, according to Reuters.
Meanwhile, far southern areas, including the state of Rio Grande do Sul, will have occasional rainy spells as fronts move in from the south.
Rainy spells to cause localized flooding from Colombia to Uruguay While much of the season will be dry across Brazil, spells of wet weather will dampen areas around around Colombia and Venezuela.
Early-season rain could impact the construction of Colombia’s Ituango dam, the country’s largest dam project.
“[This area] will experience frequent fronts and near- to above-normal rainfall,” Nicholls said.
Warm, dry weather to dominate across Chile, central Argentina A warm and dry pattern is set to unfold along the Pacific coast from Peru through much of Chile and into central Argentina.
“A steady parade of storms will lead to frequent [rainfall] across southern portions of Chile and Argentina,“ Nicholls said.

Tight water usage restrictions have been successful in stalling ‘day zero’ – when the city’s taps will be turned off—until 2019, buying time for authorities to look for more ways to manage the crisis.
The JRC, with data from its Global Drought Observatory (GDO), provides analytical reports on the crisis as it develops.
Rainfall levels in April, May and June, during the wettest period of the year, can give some indication as to the likelihood and timescale for recovery.
But the roots of the current situation run much deeper.
With climate change spurring more and more extreme weather events, severe shortages could become an increasingly regular occurrence in the future.
Water shortage and rising temperatures JRC scientists looked at precipitation in Southern Africa over the past 36 years and found that there exists a strong probability of 50-70 percent monthly precipitation deficit every 5 years (more moisture lost through evaporation and transpiration than is gained through rainfall).
In the Western Cape, the deficit could reach as high as 70-80 percent every 10 years.
Preparing for the future But it’s not all bad news.
Understanding the current situation from this perspective can help policymakers to better plan actions to minimise the impact of water shortages.
The scientists suggest that short term measures such as water restrictions must be combined with more structural medium to long-term measures, including: Exploring the diversification of food production towards more drought-resistant crop varieties; Investing in climate resilience and early actions with more appropriate infrastructures and information systems to help policy makers.

Drought has spread across the state, but conditions in southeastern Utah are dire and deepening.
“My dad’s 93, and he told me he’d never seen a drought this bad in the county,” said San Juan County Commissioner Bruce Adams.
“I’ve talked to several other older ranchers who have confirmed the same thing: It’s never been this bad.” Water restrictions mean lawns have already died, just like the range.
“Some ranchers are ordering hay from Idaho because there is none.” Adams said there was so little runoff that reservoirs are low and stock ponds are dry.
He said ranchers are running thousands of gallons of water out to their stock each day to keep them alive.
“They’re just a line at the well to purchase water every day,” he said, “by people who have water tanks that are hauling water to meet their needs.” The U.S Agriculture Department’s latest climate report says that the eastern edge of Utah has received just 46% of normal precipitation since October.
Adams noted: “Stock ponds were not filled.
And, so, every rancher is hauling thousands of gallons of water a day to try and keep these animals alive.” County commissioners first declared a disaster in November, and they’ve reaffirmed that position each month since then.
“I get on my knees and pray every day but I’m not sure that that’s doing the trick yet.” Just a year ago, conditions were close to normal throughout Utah.
The Drought Monitor shows parts of San Juan County were only “abnormally dry.”

Drought conditions are affecting many aspects of human life in Southwest Colorado, but they’re also impacting wildlife across the region.
Some animals, such as birds, do not need to drink much water because they metabolize water from the food they eat, said Colorado Parks and Wildlife spokesman Joe Lewandowski.
But drought conditions decrease the moisture in vegetation, which is detrimental to animals’ hydration.
This can be problematic for lactating females, for instance, because they need extra water to produce milk.
Last year, there was a late freeze that affected bears’ natural food supply.
Fish eat bugs, and the more water there is, the more bugs there are.
At the Durango fish hatchery, Parks and Wildlife is releasing fish into the wild earlier than normal because there is less water available for the hatchery to use.
Species have adapted to different climates for thousands of years, so there is no threat of a mass extinction, Lewandowski said.
However, biologists are worried that long-term drought will have harmful effects on wildlife.
“There’s nothing the public needs to do, but we just kind of want to let people know that the dry weather has a lot of different effects.” Since April, Southwest Colorado, as well as the entire Four Corners, has been listed in an “exceptional drought,” the most intense drought category, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.

LUBBOCK, Texas – On one of the busiest weekends of the year on the water, Texas Parks and Wildlife Game Wardens said they’d be out checking for safety violations.
He said the lake levels also affect the fish and wildlife, if oxygen levels in the water get too low.
The City Water Department said they never worry too much, as the lake is designed to refill naturally.
"It’s doing real well," Fishing Guide Norman Clayton said.
"One rain will put it over the spill way."
Clayton takes people out on guided fishing tours of the lake.
He said there are beautiful secrets hidden around the lake.
"If they haven’t seen the lake from a boat, then they haven’t seen anything of the beauty of this."
If you’d like to take a ride with Norman Clayton Guide Services, CLICK HERE.
If you’d like to check the water levels at Alan Henry daily, CLICK HERE.

STEP UP: Former agriculture minister Barnaby Joyce calls on the state governments to do more to help drought-stricken farmers.
Former agriculture minister Barnaby Joyce has called on the state governments to do more to help drought-stricken farmers as conditions across NSW continue to decline.
The New England MP, who represents the Upper Hunter, says the states need to do “a little more heavy lifting” and pull their weight – especially when it comes to implementing freight subsidies to help farmers pay to move stock and transport fodder and water.
He recently met with the NSW Farmers Association to discuss drought assistance measures.
DROUGHT: The drought is spreading across NSW.
Both said Mr Joyce was a failed agriculture minister who should have done more to create better drought-support measures for farmers when he held the portfolio.
The loans cannot be used to buy fodder or water.
Mr Joyce said the federal government already had a range of assistance measures in place – including the farm household allowance.
The states may have been doing more if Barnaby Joyce didn’t abolish COAG’s Standing Council on Primary Industry, which was in place in part to ensure the Commonwealth and the states were working together on drought, Mr Fitzgibbon said.
Ms Swanson said Mr Joyce should work with federal agriculture minister David Littleproud as he was “well placed to guide him as to what we should be doing as a Commonwealth instead of trying to abrogate his responsibility and palm it off to the states.”

The Department of Primary Industries has reported 61 per cent of NSW is currently in drought, with the Central West region worst affected.
Read more Councillors Cass Coleman and Maree Statham said the drought had very much arrived for their constituents.
“I’ve been out to a lot of functions recently with farmers in Rydal, Glen Alice, Tarana, Meadow Flat, and the farming industry is in dire straights at the moment,” Cr Statham said.
“I was speaking to an auctioneer and he said the mood at the cattle yard is depressing.
“We’re losing sheep due to the conditions.
And we’re not living off the land, so I can’t imagine what other farmers are going through,” Cr Coleman said.
Cr Coleman proposed council lobby Bathurst MP Paul Toole for details on how the newly appointed Drought Coordinator would assist farmers in Lithgow.
Sheep being fed in the dry conditions.
Picture: Central Tablelands Local Land Services.
Ms Statham said the proposal did not imply a conflict of interest as she had “no intention of feeding” her stock, instead selling off cattle.

Moderate drought usually carries with it short-term effects, less than six months.
We rely on a carry over from year to year to grow our crops.
The only way to carry moisture from year to year is in our soil.
The lighter the soil the hard time it has in retaining moisture.
In figure 3 we can see that a wheat crop on average needs over 400mm of moisture throughout its growing season, and it requires the most amount of moisture at the heading and flowering stages.
So where does this moisture come from?
There is moisture there, enough to get our crops rolling but we do not have the wealth like we did last season when a good portion of farmers say excellent crops despite our lack of rain.
So, what it comes down to are timely rains.
This year Westman will need to experience rains throughout the growing season in order to see our crops flourish.
Expect to see some rain from May 24th -26th in Westman around that 10mm will be common throughout the area.

It gives you a lot of water and then turns it off.” A map released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s drought monitor shows that more than 20 percent of New Mexico – scattered areas in the northern part of the state – is in exceptional drought, the most serious category, and more than 99 percent of the state is in some kind of drought.
“The rain made lots of silvery minnow babies,” Gensler said.
Some parts of New Mexico got a lot of rain from a system that moved into the state Monday and lingered into Thursday.
“But the moisture we got (this week) is only going to go so far,” Fontenot said.
I’m cautiously optimistic, but we have to wait and see.” This week’s rain, as vigorous as it was in some areas, did not stop the water levels in the Elephant Butte Reservoir, five miles north of Truth and Consequences, and Caballo Reservoir, 16 miles south of TorC, from dropping low enough to trigger a Rio Grande Compact provision prohibiting the storage of additional water in upstream reservoirs.
According to Article VII of the compact, New Mexico cannot store water in northern reservoirs such as El Vado, Abiquiu and Heron when the combined waters at Elephant Butte and Caballo recede to less than 400,000 acre-feet.
The Conservancy District’s Gensler said the total water in Elephant Butte and Caballo dropped below 400,000 acre-feet Sunday, putting the Article VII restriction into effect for the first time since early this year.
On Thursday, combined water in the two reservoirs was at about 394,000 acre-feet, Gensler said.
“It’s dropping pretty fast.” OK for now Gensler said the Article VII restriction would probably not change much for the irrigators on the 70,000 acres of cropland served by the Conservancy District.
And he noted that even though Article VII restricts the storage of additional water, it does not prohibit the release of water that had already been in storage.