Our thirsty world is running out of fresh water

WATER...

It's becoming more precious than gold or oil in some places on Earth.

We live on a planet literally swamped by water. But, more than 97 percent is too salty for drinking or irrigating and another 2 percent of the fresh water is locked up in snow and ice even with so-called global warming's melting of the mid-latitude glaciers.

That leaves us with a puny 1 percent of the Earth's water supply to grow our crops, supply us with critical drinking and bathing water and cool our power plants, etc., etc., etc.

We are overdrawing our 'water accounts' on a global scale. We are draining our wells, rivers, lakes and aquifers faster than the natural recharge rate. In other words, we're slowly going dry. (That's why I live in water-rich 'Camelot.')

This is indeed 'bad news,' as we are adding some 83 million more people each year to the Earth's bulging population.

Two-thirds of our fresh water is used to grow food. The demand for the remaining one-third of our water supply keeps rising at a staggering pace. Unless we change drastically how we use this dwindling resource, we are going to be in 'dire straits' to say the least, sooner than we think.

We Americans use more water daily per household -- approximately 100 gallons - than any other nation on this planet. Of this 100 gallons, it is estimated that we waste more than 70 gallons, that's nearly 26,000 gallons of water squandered in a year by every home in the U.S.

By comparison, millions of the world's poorest people subsist on fewer than 5 gallons of water each day. Nearly half - about 46 percent - of the Earth's population do not have water piped into their homes. Women in some developing countries walk between 2 and 5 miles a day to get water, much of which is highly polluted.

It was recently estimated by a group of hydrologists in Europe, that in just 15 years - by 2025 - nearly TWO BILLION PEOPLE will live in regions with severe water shortages.

Of this total, at least 30 million people in North America will face water scarcity problems, mainly in the southwestern U.S. and northern Mexico. Just this past year, many of my farmers in central California saw their vital supplies of irrigation water reduced to levels that prevented them from seeding crops. Many fields were left fallow, totally unplanted.

This past winter season in western China was so dry that farmers lost all of their winter crops, including corn and wheat. No measurable rain fell for more than 8 months in the Chengdu region. Only spotty showers have been observed in these crop zones thus far this arid spring of 2010. Irrigation water supplies throughout much of China and India are at their lowest levels in decades.

Things aren't much better in Africa. A global food shortage situation will likely lead to widespread famines on several continents in the next couple of years. It's not the case of 'if,' just 'when' these food and water shortfalls will take place. Stay tuned.

NORTH IDAHO WEATHER REVIEW AND LONG-RANGE OUTLOOKS

While we're on the subject of water, I should mention that this April was the wettest such period locally since 1996 and the coolest April overall since 1915 at nearly 6 degrees below normal on Player Drive in Coeur d'Alene.

The first two weeks of April were very chilly with lows in the frosty 20s and highs in the upper 30s and lower 40s. A 'killer freeze' on April 10 blackened some early blooming plants in scattered backyards, when the mercury plunged into the upper teens and lower 20s in the area.

We did see an almost summerlike afternoon reading of 83 degrees on April 20, the warmest day in Coeur d'Alene since the 85 degree temperature last Sept. 25, 2009, nearly seven months ago.

Our total April 2010 precipitation stood at a healthy 3.09 inches as of 10 a.m. on April 30. It was still raining lightly at that hour. Our 116-year average April precipitation since 1895 has been 1.75 inches. Last year, in April of 2009, we gauged less than half of this April's total at just 1.45 inches. In 1996, April had a rainfall total of double the norm at 3.32 inches. That year went on to establish the Lake City's all-time record annual precipitation mark of 38.77 inches. (I don't see a repeat, however, in 2010.)

We measured 0.6 inches of snow this April in town, exactly double the puny 0.3 inches received in February and March combined, but below the monthly normal since 1895 of 0.9 inches.

The Jan. 1 through April 30 snowfall total of just 3.3 inches was the least snow ever for the 120-day period, less than half of the 7.7 inches in the same time span in the 'open' winter of 1944, which is now in second place.

The generally cooler and wetter than normal spring weather will persist into early May, but we still see a mid-May warmup back into the 70s, possibly higher. Then, more showers and cooler temperatures will return until another slightly stronger warm spell arrives shortly before the Memorial Day weekend. Then, you guessed it. We'll see more showers and cooler than normal temperatures into mid June. Such is spring in North Idaho, a very 'fickle' period weatherwise to say the least. But, we need the moisture after a dry and almost snowless winter. The recent moderate to heavy snows in the mountains above 4,000 feet in Montana and Idaho will certainly help our somewhat depleted water outlook and give my friend Dennis Williams an improved huckleberry harvest. His wife, Bonnie, gives us that delicious jam every season.

As far as the summer weather patterns are concerned, we're still expecting a large stationary ridge of high pressure to 'camp out' over the Inland Empire between late June and at least mid-September.

This should mean less rainfall than usual for the summer of 2010 along with at least 25 to 30 warm to hot 'Sholeh Days' at or above 90 degrees. We probably will see at least one or two afternoons this summer approaching or even topping 100 degrees in town.

Our wet and cool spring will delay the forest and brush fire season for a while, but the expected hot and dry summer and early autumn period could result in some major forest fires.

In other words, great weather for the North Idaho Fair and Rodeo and other summer outdoor activities, could be 'bad news' for the eventual tinder-dry forests. But, we'll pray that we don't see another 1910.

SPECIAL NOTE

We were delighted to see that the American Lung Association's "State of the Air" pollution report issued this past week gave Coeur d'Alene a healthy "third place rating" in least ozone pollution nationwide just behind Bismarck, N.D., and Brownsville, Texas.

As I've said, "CAMELOT RULES!"

Cliff Harris is a climatologist who writes a weekly column for The Press. His opinions are his own. E-mail sfharris@roadrunner.com