"Yeah, but it's the dry heat ..."

A friend of mine in Texas made reference recently to a key selling point for Michigan in coming years: We have fresh water.

The friend was lamenting the loss of his yard to a sustained wave of heat and the absence of rain in San Antonio. I replied that my yard in Lansing was green and requiring the mower about every six days — without a bit of human-directed watering.

Being an aficionado of The Weather Channel and weather.com, I got to thinking about the Texas-Michigan comparison. I decided to look at Dallas — a hot city economically right now — and Lansing over the last six weeks.

Some findings (June 1-July 14):

Number of days at or above 85 degrees: Lansing, 6, Dallas, 44.

Number of days at or above 90: Lansing, 1, Dallas 43. (In fact, Dallas’ coolest day since June 1 was 85 and it already has seen several days in the triple digits.)

Number of days with precipitation: Lansing 18, Dallas 8.

Total precipitation for the period: Lansing, 7.56 inches, Dallas, .99 of an inch.

Much always is made about how Americans have migrated south and west since World War II to warmer climes. It’s all about the Sun Belt, not the Rust Belt.

But will the Rust Belt eventually become the Green Belt? Will the Sun Belt become the Sun-blasted Belt?

Those quick to lament Michigan’s winters should spend some time in Dallas in August.  How congenial is the climate when the act of grabbing your steering wheel will inflict pain or even damage due to the heat? (I’ve lived in north Texas and can testify to that particular threat.)

And while Texas did have a wet 2007, it was in a major drought in 2005-06 and the long-term trends appear to be for dryer conditions there.

When the issue of water and people does climb into the national consciousness, the attention usually turns to such desert metropolises as Las Vegas or Phoenix. But the issue of water isn’t confined to the desert.

Hot and dry is fine, as long as people have the power to run their air-conditioners and the ability to pump up in fresh water.

What happens when the power gets ever more expensive and the water harder to come by? The coming years could be scary for Michigan if the Sun Belt tries to use its political muscle to solve southern water problems with Midwest water.

CONTEST: Name the movie from which this blog's headline is pulled. It was filmed in the 1980s and has something to do with human manipulation of climate. Post your guesses below or send them to dmelot@lsj.com.

Comments

[rukidding]

Enjoyed the posting. It will be interesting to see if the Great Lakes Compact runs into any "heat" in Congress from the Sun-burnt Belt states. Can't recall the movie, but around here remember, its not the heat, its the humility. :)

[JRS]

Come to Michigan, you will have plenty of water to drink but maybe starve to death for the lack
of a job. Somehow I think the last point will overshadow the water.

[Rob y.]

I spoke with a woman in Nashville TN and she told me she'd trade my heating bill for her water bill. When I told her I pay around $30 a quarter there was a stunned silence. Her bill is about ten times that year round. A month

It's not just the southwest. In fact, Atlanta and the southeast are probably more affected by lack of water than is the west.

[msuspartan1995]

The line is from the movie Aliens (1986)