Perception and Reality

Earlier this year, I said that we might be experiencing an "historic" drought.  As the water year (Oct-Sep) comes to a close, my reader might be wondering whether I was correct.  Well, it depends on what I meant.  Have there been drier years at The Homestead?  Certainly.  In fact, even during the period of instrumental record, there have been drier years.  In our experience, however, the farm and garden have never been drier.  This is primarily because the city irrigation system was damaged by a flood during August 2017 and it has never come back on line.  On the other hand, our perception is not entirely out of step with reality.  Based on 70 years of data collected at the airport in Cedar City (below), 2018 is on track for fourth place with 28 days to go.  (Look at the 1950s; that was a difficult time.)

Year	Inches
2002	4.86
1959	4.9
1960	5.63
2018	6.71
1956	6.83
1976	6.92
1951	6.98
1950	7.59
1977	7.69
1996	7.87