W-A-T-E-R to Become 4-Letter Word as Drought Takes Increased Toll in ’08

Water, or more precisely the lack of it, will be on everyone’s mind in 2008, predicts a University of Alabama climatologist.

“Water will be the biggest buzzword of the year,” says Dr. David Brommer, assistant professor of geography at UA. And while the drought received lots of attention last summer, Brommer says it will have an even larger impact on the average citizen in the year ahead.

“We are going to feel it more this year,” Brommer predicts. “We talked about it a lot this past year. There were a lot of news stories about it, but many people’s lives weren’t directly impacted.”

There’s potential for more water restrictions and water rationing in the coming year, says Brommer. It’s the cumulative effect of the drought that will raise the stakes rather than an extraordinary lack of rainfall in 2008, he says.

“We look to have a little warmer than normal weather and slightly drier than normal,” he says. However, with portions of the Southeast already some 26 inches behind in average rainfall, slightly drier than average weather will become significant. “We can’t erase that,” Brommer says of the rain deficit.

And 2008 will not be the year, Brommer says, when west Alabama will see a snowfall with significant accumulation. In fact, rather than S-N-O-W disrupting plans and impacting lives of Alabamians, there’s a much better chance that W-A-T-E-R will be treated as if it contained one fewer letter.

“It will be a four-letter word for some people this spring and summer,” Brommer predicts.