I saw a news report last evening about the wheat and corn harvests (among others) in Texas.  Because of the extreme drought in our area, now rated as the worst possible, farmers have been devastated and are losing their crops to a degree not seen since the Dust Bowl in the early- to mid-1930s.  Corn is rotting on the stalk and literally crumbles when handled.  Wheat and other grains have simply withered in the ground and produced a tiny fraction of their normal yields, and what has been salvaged is not usable for humans.  This is the second year in a row for this kind of destruction, and many farmers are accruing debt that threatens to overwhelm them and put them out of business.

The likely result of this will be the need to import significant amounts of these crops in order to feed the American people.  Prices will go up.  Supplies will go down.  People will lose their livelihoods.

Add to that the extreme fire danger we have in the state.  Because the drought has been ongoing for two years already and shows no signs of abating, and because temperatures continue to be above normal, most of the state is a tinderbox waiting to be ignited.  Of course, some areas are already burning.

There is currently no serious hope for rain (wee chances here and there don’t help even if precipitation occurs).  We are significantly more than two feet (more than half a meter) behind on rainfall for the past two years.  Water restrictions are ubiquitous and range from stage 1 (e.g., no watering during the day) to stage 5 (e.g., no outside water use at all [including washing of cars], no new swimming pools, no landscaping, no refilling of swimming pools).  It would seem the situation will only get worse.  There are places where water is being turned off for those violating the restrictions because there is no room for error in water rationing.

And August is typically the hottest month…

[Update]: See my correction on Dallas’ water restrictions in this comment.  Thanks to xocobra for mentioning that.