Bone Dry Weather is With Idaho through all of January

Help me out.  Has it snowed or rained in the river valley in south central Idaho in January?  I’ve scraped ice a few times this month when it’s formed on the car windows, especially during our recent bout with fog, but it seems like a couple of months have passed since I brushed snow from the car, and it wasn’t much, and I think I remember doing it only once.  The thing about the weather we’ve seen in 2026 is that there’s no variability.  There’s a sameness every day, and the long-range forecast says it’s going to continue into the beginning of February.

The Picture is Getting Much Worse, and Soon

We’re heading for water restrictions, and I wonder if the deal brokered with farmers and ranchers in eastern Idaho can hold.  I’m not going to blame man-made (anthropomorphic) climate change.  I’ve been around long enough to witness some wet years and others that are very dry.  Former Jerome County Commissioner Roger Morley told me a couple of years ago that the region has been getting gradually drier since 1981.  Soil records show some of these cycles over the course of hundreds of years.  A scientist I know in Kentucky has cited some dry spells that last for 200 years.

We Need to Begin Importing Water from Elsewhere

I’m going to revive an old idea.  We have the engineering ability to divert water from the Missouri River or pump it from the Great Lakes.  When I suggested the latter several years ago, a liberal academic in Chicago railed against the idea.  That fellow still needs to eat, and he should know that it’s not just Iowa and Nebraska that feed the country.  We’ll make a deal: you supply some water, and we’ll put something on your table.   During dry cycles, we can use the water.  During wetter periods, they can keep it for boating.