North America's Worsening Drought

The state of Texas is fast becoming the United States' poster child for drought of "biblical" proportions. Austin—the state's capital—and nearby San Antonio have in the last 22 months experienced the driest weather on record since the extraordinary drought that occurred in 1954–56. People's lives and livelihoods are being devastated, and billions of dollars have been lost.

Year-to-date rainfall in 2009, across much of central Texas, is running 8 to 12 inches—50 to 75 percent—below normal. But in the worst-affected area, parts of Wharton and Matagorda Counties are down 12 to 16 inches, to 25 percent or less of normal. In the first three weeks of July, 16 days—ten of them consecutive—saw temperatures top 100 degrees in the Austin area, with highs reaching 106 as a merciless sun baked the land under cloudless skies.

For nearly two years, Texas springs have dried up, moisture has evaporated from the soil and most of the crops in south-central Texas have been destroyed, causing losses estimated at $3.6 billion and rising. Texas cattle ranchers, who alone have suffered $1 billion in losses this year, report that their stock ponds have gone dry and that cattle are dying for lack of water and forage. Lakes are receding rapidly and aquifer levels are declining. Experts say that the drought will grow worse before improving.

Texas' state climatologist has reported that central Texas drought conditions last year were the worst since the dry years of 1917–18. Across Texas, many counties are rated in the two worst drought categories—"exceptional" or "extreme"—while many hill country areas are labeled "severe" or "moderate."

Drought conditions this year are not unique to Texas. On the west coast of the U.S., a stretch of land from Washington state to the Mexican border is classed from "abnormally dry" to "severe drought." Abnormally dry weather extends eastward through Arizona and New Mexico to the Gulf states of Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi. The dry belt continues northeast from Alabama into Georgia and the Carolinas, then curves up the east coast through Virginia, to the Maryland-Pennsylvania border. Another band of dry weather extends along the Canadian border from Idaho to Michigan's upper peninsula. Significant areas of drought are also found in Hawaii, Oklahoma, Ohio and Nevada.

Why is drought extending across the U.S.—and to other parts of the world as well? What does this mean to you and your loved ones? Believe it or not, a foundational explanation can be found in the pages of your Bible!

Our peoples have turned their backs on the true God—the only assurer of rain in due season. "Take heed to yourselves, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them, lest the LORD's anger be aroused against you, and He shut up the heavens so that there be no rain, and the land yield no produce, and you perish quickly from the good land which the LORD is giving you" (Deuteronomy 11:16-17).

Today, many scoff at the idea that there is a God in heaven who actually controls the weather. Quick to point to greenhouse gases, overpopulation and industrial growth as excuses, they neglect the underlying cause behind all the other causes—the sinful way human beings are conducting their lives (Psalm 54 1:4). Whether innocently or willfully ignorant, Americans and citizens of the other British-descended nations are beginning to get a small taste of the future national punishments of which the Bible warns (Leviticus 26:14-44).

Ultimately, God will deliver His people who survive the great tribulation and the prophesied national captivity: "The LORD will guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in drought, and strengthen your bones; you shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail" (Isaiah 58:11). Until then, what can you do to protect yourself and those you love? To learn more, please read our informative booklet, Who Controls the Weather?