Drought here since August. The small cistern ran dry a month ago, which has never happened before. The large cistern was down to some 900 gallons. I don't use anywhere near the national average of 400 gallons per day. More like 10 gallons. So could have managed for a few more months. Still, this was worrying, especially as the area moved from severe to extreme drought according to the US Drought Monitor.
Two days of solid rain fixed it, yay! The small cistern has already refilled, and the large will probably be full by tomorrow.
The winds preceeding that same rain storm fanned the flames that destroyed Gatlinburg. Earlier, fire got within 10 miles of here, although that may have been some kind of controlled burn.
Climate change is leading to longer duration weather events in this area. What tended to be a couple of dry weeks in the fall, has become multiple months of drought and weeks of fire. What might have been a few days of winter weather and a few inches of snow before the front moved through has turned into multiple weeks of arctic air, with multiple 1 ft snowfalls. What might have been a few scorching summer days has become a week of 100-110 degree temperatures. I've seen all that over the past several years.
After this, I'm adding "additional, larger cistern" to my todo list. Also "larger fire break around house".
2016 was a record-year globally, as far as I know, even warmer in average than 2015. Now, upon break of the new year, there is even snow and ice again in Berlin, and it is supposed to stay this way for three more days at least with temperatures below zero. This is not bad weather in my opinion, but more lovable weather indeed, because far less people are out there to get in your way. Sometimes bad weather is good weather in this sense, sometimes cool weather is good weather.