there's been a pretty severe drought this summer, possibly one of the worst i've yet seen. to make sure i wasn't just imagining things i reviewed the recorded precipitation at the ironwood airport weather station and between may and july we've had a total of just over an inch of total rain, which is extremely unprecedented here. in prior years i have noticed that it tends to be very dry in june, but afterwards we get steady rain that accumulates around 3 to 4 inches each month, along with the snow melt of course. had last winter been light on snow like the last several have been, things would be pretty dire right now
both of my wells failed a few weeks ago and i'm considering digging new ones while the water table is this low, as the method i use does not allow me to go much deeper than the water table at time of digging. the sky is moody rn and there is some angery lightning but according to the radar the storms are staying mostly to the north so it doesn't seem promising
scary, i hope this does end up becoming the decade defining drought like you mentioned and it doesn't get any worse than this
DROUGHT UPDATE: it still has barely rained, and so much of the pond is evaporated that there is nothing stopping the sheep from going anywhere. after seeing them at my cabin a half mile away twice we decided to keep them in the barnyard until the end of the day where they can graze for several hours under supervision
pictured are sheop eating fresh grass growing at the hard bottom of a small recess pond that has never been exposed before
if the forecasts here are to be believed its going to be ridiculously rainy here during autumn, hopefully it'll be remotely similar for you