Bear Flat Dispatch: The ongoing drought

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — The weather is a never-ending source of conversation for both city and country people.  However, it is farmers that are arguably the most directly impacted by weather, and ultimately that does affect everyone who eats food.  

March came in like a lion, and it looks like it may go out like a lamb as I write this.  It really has been a “nice” winter, and the early budding of poplar trees is incredible, but the ongoing lack of moisture is troubling.  Weather and climate are distinct but related, and extremes in weather appear to be worsening.  The ongoing drought conditions are especially worrying for the coming season of agriculture and wildfires. 

BC Hydro is also very concerned about this drought, although they don’t talk about that too much.  Since our province has unwisely put most of our eggs into the large hydroelectric basket even when cheaper green renewables were available, we had to import 1/5^th of our electricity last year due to the drought.  Now, Williston Reservoir is poised to set a new low water record with no relief in sight.  However, BC Hydro maintains that filling the Site C reservoir will happen even with this drought. They seem to have an optimistic “glass half full” view of that situation.  I guess we will see.  

I recently heard that at the regular morning safety meetings and such, all BC Hydro workers are now instructed to do a rain dance.  I can’t confirm if that is true, just something I was told.  In fact, I am a firm believer in the wise old Chinese proverb that “If you haven’t heard a rumour by noon, make one up. If you’re a writer, make sure it’s a full page of the book you’re currently working on.”  (Just kidding. The author Lamont Tanksley is credited with that quote).  Incidentally, lately, it seems that motto is used for new conspiracy theories and such too, but I digress.

It could very well happen that we end up with a wet spring or summer, and our drought concerns will wash away.  It does seem that we often go through cycles of changing conditions that keep any particular extreme somewhat limited, and that could happen again now.  However, this drought is already much worse than “normal”, and one more season would be very bad now.  So perhaps we should all be doing the rain dance thing.  It can’t hurt, and the exercise will do us all some good anyway.  In fact, I also heard that the main reason for BC Hydro employees doing the rain dance was really for the health benefits, but I can’t confirm that one either.