This is interesting information, Christiaan, on the drought+rainfall patterns you reported. One of the results that all the various long-term supercomputer climate models show with increasing CO_2 is that around the world, the overall amount of rain isn’t going to decrease, and in many areas, the total amount of annual rainfall will actually increase. *However*, the computer model outputs indicate that in many areas the rainstorms will produce shorter but more intense rainfall with larger amounts of rainfall over a shorter period of time separated by increasingly longer periods with no rain. So the *total* rainfall will actually be greater. But it will come in huge downpours that will probably cause lots of flooding followed by up to months-long periods of no rain. Hopefully the local flora in those areas can adapt to that. Geophytes seem already more adapted to those kinds of conditions. Sounds like you already get that kind of behavior. --Lee Poulsen Pasadena, California, USA - USDA Zone 10a Latitude 34°N, Altitude 1150 ft/350 m > On Dec 17, 2019, at 2:35 AM, cvschalkwyk@lantic.net wrote: > > Southern Africa is experiencing one of the worst droughts ever. We are > used to droughts, but the scale of this one is massive. Some parts of > the country started to receive some rain, especially towards the eastern > side, while most of the Northern Cape is still very dry. Some scattered > showers did occur, often dumping large amounts of water in a short space > of time over a limited range. > > One such shower happened over Upington on December the 5th, my home > town, officially 65 mm (about two and a half inches), although some > residents measured up to 98 mm (about 4 inches), in less than three > hours. (Just for context: 65 mm is more than a third of our annual > rainfall in a good year). With resultant localized flooding. Happiness > for those who did get rain. Sadness for those who missed out. > _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/…