Naaa, there’s no global warming-right? Bah! Our planet is warming and from all predictions this is going to be a summer of record breaking heat in the state. Make yourself a checklist to prepare for summer:

-Reduce your air conditioning costs by keeping curtains/blinds closed in the day, seal around windows with weather stripping where there are gaps, and replace furnace filters.

-Work on putting in eco-friendly landscaping with drought resistant plants and native plants that don’t use much water to keep your bill down. Lawns here generally need water 2-3 times a week in summer and it’s best to water deeply and less frequently rather than shallow and often. About 1” per watering session, and don’t water between 1-4 pm.

-Use a smart thermostat to automate your cooling inside. Try to keep AC at 78-80 degrees when you aren’t home.

– Before we all feel like we’re melting, schedule a tune-up to keep your AC running all summer to avoid breakdowns and lowering bills. One of the most common calls to AC contractors goes like this: “My AC stopped working and there is ice all over my furnace!”  That ice is there because you neglected to regularly change your furnace filter! It’s cheap to do the replacement and will save you money on an emergency call to get your furnace back up and running.

Salt Lake City has a lawn watering guide at slc.gov/utilities/conservation that suggests  you water lawns ½” per interval and during the summer once every 3-4 days but we all may need to water less or more depending on if Mother Nature is giving us more or less rain.  Trees need water and to properly hydrate them it’s best to focus on slow, deep watering at the base of your tree(s). New trees need more frequent watering and put mulch around the base will help retain soil moisture. You can dig down with a trowel a few inches to see if the ground is dry (time to water!) and avoid midday watering for any outside plants to avoid evaporation/waste of water.

I heard a piece on NPR recently that trees in drought actually make a ‘crying out’ noise that’s not heard by human ears and that when trees face drought the water tension in the tubes that transport water increases. This can cause air bubbles to form, break, and collapse in a process called cavitation. The breaking of water columns within the xylem (tissue) generates vibrations that can be detected as sounds.

According to utah.gov, severe drought covers 45% of the state, with 3% in extreme drought. About 75% of all our water goes towards agricultural water use and yet we have extremely cheap water bills (average is $38 a month for the average household). We definitely need more water for so many reasons and let’s hope our plants, grasses and trees survive the predicted heat wave across the state this summer!