September's end

Here we are, about to enter October, and it still is not raining. It's so dry that there are cracks in the ground. Even worse, there are cracks in the house as the ground it sits on shrinks beneath it. Lawns and fields around us are parched brown. And there's no rain in the forecast. It's odd.

Grape vines have deep roots, so their leaves are green. But the ground beneath them is mostly brown.

The last time I cut the grass was July 28. That's more than two months ago. It's just not growing for lack of water. A recent news item about the drought showed that our region is among those in France where it's most severe. The Météo France web site says that our annual September rainfall should be about 56 mm (just over 2 inches) based on data from 1981-2010. Here at the house I measured 9 mm (about one-third of an inch) for the month. August was just as dry.