Our planet's aquifers are running dry

As I wrote this article on Wednesday, June 24, we hadn't had a drop of rain in Coeur d'Alene in more than three full weeks. Some of our streams at the end of June had water levels at 100-year lows. Dozens of forest and brush fires were burning from Alaska southward to Mexico. Record triple-digit high temperatures were in the local outlook for this weekend's "Ironman" event, not a pretty picture weatherwise.

As far as water, our most precious commodity is concerned, we're running out of both irrigation and drinking supplies around the globe.

Researchers from the University of California at Irvine said earlier this month that 21 out of 37 of the world's major aquifers have "passed the tipping point and are gradually drying up."

Recent satellite data from NASA shows that many countries on a global scale are overdrawing water from the largest underground aquifers "at an alarming rate."

In the next decade or so, the problems will only get worse as far as potable water is concerned, especially in areas with exploding populations.

Without sufficient supplies of water, sanitation will suffer leading to perhaps widespread outbreaks of deadly diseases around the world.

Again using NASA's twin Grace Satellites, scientists have found that most stressed groundwater basins are located in some of the driest and most populated regions on Earth.

For example, the huge Arabian Aquifer System in the Mideast, which serves more than 60 million people, is considered to be the most severely stressed groundwater basin in the entire world. The Indus Basin Aquifer in northwestern India and Pakistan is the second most stressed underground water basin. It provides water daily to more than 800 million people.

In the U.S., the farm-rich Central Valleys of California are in third place in the drying up of the world's aquifers. The current mega-drought has cut irrigation water supplies by upwards of 80 percent. Farmers that illegally pump water out of the state's canals are being fined $1,000-a-day. But, without this water, their crops would be dead by early July. It's a "no win" situation to say the least.

Here's the GOOD NEWS. As reported in the Coeur d'Alene Press on Thursday, our local North Idaho water supply is in "good shape" despite the recent record warm and dry weather.

Water providers to some 18,000 customers in the Coeur d'Alene area are not too worried about us running out of water anytime soon. We draw water from a very healthy Rathdrum Prairie/Spokane Valley Aquifer at the rate of 650,000,000 gallons per day. Rationing of water, it appears, isn't likely in the near future.

But, we shouldn't continue to waste this most precious commodity by watering sidewalks and streets in the heat of the day, especially considering the fact that the past few weeks have been the driest on record with nary a drop of rain.

I still believe in water conservation and "going green" whenever possible.

NORTH IDAHO WEATHER REVIEW AND LONG-RANGE OUTLOOKS

Sunday's Ironman triathlon was by far the hottest in its 13-year history in Coeur d'Alene. The mercury soared to 105 degrees at 3:12 p.m. easily breaking the previous record for June 28 of 94 degrees in town exactly 90 years ago in 1925.

The previous maximum reading for an Ironman event occurred on June 25, 2006, when we saw 92 degrees at my station on Player Drive in northwest Coeur d'Alene.

By extreme contrast, the coolest Ironman was two years ago in 2013. That was on June 23, 2013, when swimmers had to cope with air temperatures in the mid 40s and very chilly water readings.

In answering a Press subscriber's question, there have only been three other times, twice in 1973, since the inception of local Coeur d'Alene daily weather records 120 years ago in 1895 that the city has observed triple-digit temperatures during the month of June.

The warmest reading ever for the month of June previous to this blistering past weekend was 102 degrees on June 23, 1973, following a record 101 degrees on June 22, 1973. The only other reading during June at or above the century mark occurred on June 30, 1939, when the mercury hit an even 100 degrees.

Longer-term, I still envision a long and quite hot summer this year with less than normal precipitation thanks to an El Nino-enhanced strong stationary high pressure ridge firmly entrenched across the Inland Empire. The only rainfall between now and at least mid September should result from scattered thunderstorms mainly over the nearby mountains. By the way, our raspberries and blueberries have ripened weeks ahead of schedule due to one of the warmest Junes on record.

HOT, HOT NOTE!: Sunday's high temperature of 105 degrees, recorded at 3:12 at my station on Player Drive, was the highest temperature recorded here in June since 1895. It breaks the previous June all-time maximum of 102 degrees, set on June 23, 1973. The long-standing record for June 28 was 94 degrees on June 28, 1925, exactly 90 years ago. Our hottest afternoon ever in Coeur d'Alene was 109 degrees on Aug. 4, 1961. Our hottest July day was July 28, 1939, at 108 degrees, and September's record is 102 degrees on Sept. 1, 1967.

SPECIAL NOTE: On Friday, July 10, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., I will have a book signing of "Weather and Bible Prophecy" at the Well Read Moose in Riverstone. Copies are currently available at the Well Read Moose, or you can go to www.WeatherProphecy.com.

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