Our view: Water on the brain

Inland Northwest residents often boast about our summer weather to relatives who live in the muggy East, the steam-bath South and the dang-humid Midwest. The brag includes the fact that we experience only a week or two of high 90s-to-triple digit temps, usually in late July or early August. The rest of the time temperatures sashay between the high 80s and low 90s, allowing us gorgeous mornings and heavenly evenings.

Compared with many cities elsewhere in the country, the summer weather here is still something to brag about. But our climate story is changing. And along with that change, summer habits – from lawn-watering to air-conditioning use to the timing of summer outings – will also need to change.

In Saturday’s Spokesman-Review, reporter Mike Prager researched the facts that support what folks have been talking about anecdotally. The region is hotter than it once was, and ultra-hot weather arrives earlier in the summer and stays longer, like a houseguest who overstays a welcome.

As Prager reported:

“ Since 1948, the average annual temperature in Spokane has increased by slightly more than 2 degrees, and Coeur d’Alene also saw nearly a 2-degree increase in average temperature in the past 60 years.

“ In the late 1950s, the average number of 90-degree-plus days was 16.5 a year. The average number has increased to 21.8 days of 90 degrees or hotter.

The challenges that hotter cities faced decades ago are arriving here now. Water conservation is the major challenge. Lavishly watered, expansive green lawns will look more and more like a luxury from a long-gone era. Fortunately, Inland Northwest water districts, municipalities and university extension programs offer Web sites filled with water and irrigation conservation tips – for gardeners tending to one flower bed as well as for farmers irrigating thousands of acres.

Weeds, for instance, are not just ugly, they are water-wasters. When weeds compete with flowers and crops for water, the weeds win. They can reduce crop yields more than 50 percent, according to the Washington State University Cooperative Extension.

North Kootenai Water District has slogans sprinkled throughout its Web site, such as “Water conservation – we can all do our part” and “Voluntary conservation now may avoid mandatory restrictions later.”

The Inland Northwest is writing an updated climate story. It’s a hot one. But if we all do our part to conserve water, we’ll have something new to brag about.