But I never thought that I would have a zero year. Thirty miles and 6,000 feet downhill in Tucson, conditions have been remarkably dry even for the desert. The April Fools storm sprayed more than an inch of cold rain on the city and surrounding range. From autumn until then, the area had received 0.01 inch of moisture. If the summer monsoon is late, we'll have a real problem meeting demand.
Circumstances are no better for farmers.
The same is true for crop processors and farm suppliers. The drought is raising immediate dangers, too. Fires Just the Beginning Thousands of forest and range fires have been sparked since February, prompting federal officials to redeploy crews, tanker planes and funding from the wet North to the dry South. In Florida, where 500,000 acres burned last summer, more than 2,450 wildfires have burned 130,000 acres and dozens of homes so far this year. The biggest, in the Everglades, had charred more than 70,000 acres of grass by today.