Here in Colorado (Boulder, on the eastern side of the Rocky Mtns) we're used to having snowy winters, but we're now in a 4-year drought (caused, in some complicated way, by the warming of the oceans). January brought not one single snowflake here, and the mountain snowpack that provides 80% of the water for the plains is down at around 50% of normal levels. We're getting a tiny dusting of snow now as I write, but what we desperately need is several very severe blizzards, with snow measured in feet, not inches. I've lived in this semi-arid climate for something like 28 years and I've never seen it this dry. In contrast to the old "Home on the Range" song, we're praying every day for the sky to be cloudy today. And for the clouds to shed some precip. I collect the tap water when I'm waiting for it to heat up and give it to the trees. We have no real hope of a garden this year, or of green grass either, but we're trying to save the trees.