It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas…Or Is It?

By Jennifer Wemhoff, Program Manager

Christmas is less than two weeks away.  All around our hometown of Lincoln, Nebraska you can see signs of the season – lights on houses, trees for sale, Salvation Army bell ringers, crowded stores.  The one thing missing is winter-like weather.  The extended forecast doesn’t have a high temperature below freezing, and there’s no snow in sight.  I doubt we’ll have a white Christmas, yet again. A couple Sundays ago I headed out to do some Christmas shopping…and I wore flip flops!

 

I admit, winter isn’t my favorite season.  I don’t love snow, but after the dry summer, bring it on.  Unfortunately, NOAA is predicting drier than average conditions for a good portion of the U.S.

 

 

I was looking back through posts to the Groundwater Blog from 2012 today, and the overall theme for the year was water conservation.  Posts like All I Want for Christmas is Precipitation!; Let's Be Honest Here; That's Your Excuse. Really?; My Water Conservation Challenge; Not About How Much You Use; Hot, Hot, Hot; Order of the Day: Conservation; and Use Your Time Wisely all preached about the importance of water conservation, particularly in light of the drought that continues to plague the U.S.

 

 

Future Christmases could also be impacted by the drought – from Chicago to Wisconsin, Iowa to Illinois, Tennessee and more – there could be a tree shortage in a few years due to the loss of newly planted trees.

In the mean time, let’s hope Santa brings some snow with him from the North Pole this year.

From all of us at The Groundwater Foundation, we wish you many blessings this holiday season and in the New Year ahead.  Cheers to groundwater!