By John Amato
While the northeastern section of the country has been dealing with drought conditions for nearly two years, the situation has remained pretty much status quo in some areas.
One thing no meteorologist has mentioned is that even with moderate to severe drought, the reservoirs that supply New York City with water are at a normal capacity of 78 percent—not bad at all, considering the fact that rainfall has been spotty at best. Plus, the city and western Long Island have been receiving rain over the last several weeks.
But further east and south, some parts of Long Island resemble the Kansas prairie, with trees of different species suffering under severe drought stress. Many trees in some of the southern areas of Long Island have wilted and died, and on others the leaves have turned brown or yellow, due to extremely dry conditions. However, once the rains of autumn come, the drought conditions should be significantly eased and the trees, shrubs and lawns will begin to recover from the long dry spell. Also, the lowering sun angle and longer, cooler nights will slow the process in which trees lose moisture through their leaves and trunks, known as transpiration.
Why can’t these weather bozos accentuate the positive and not always be all gloom and doom? People are sick and tired of this constant hyping of the weather. They just want the facts and forecasts that are not beyond two or three days. These so-called weather experts should stop acting like immature teenagers and start acting like true professional meteorologists.
John Amato
Fresh Medows
