Baking South

If you have a pulse and live in the South, this isn't news. But the weather is definitely making headlines and leaving many dead. A current round-up of the truly dire conditions in the Southeast was made by R. Neal at Facing South:

"Ninety-one percent of Tennessee has been parched by extreme drought, suffering major crop and pasture losses and widespread water shortages or restrictions. A growing area of the state, particularly the southern agricultural counties, is now in an exceptional drought emergency, facing devastating crop losses and widespread water emergencies as reservoirs, streams and wells dry up.

"It's so hot, TVA had to shut down a nuclear power reactor at Browns Ferry due to unacceptably high water temperatures in the Tennessee River caused by intake water used to cool the reactor core being discharged back into the river."