Readers Of The Purple Sage: This Bush Predicts Rain

Bob Rose’s Weather Blog podcast this week focuses on the Texas purple sage, a common bush in drier parts of Texas that seems to predict rain. Nicknamed “The Barometer Bush,” it seems sensitive to weather changes and often opens its flowers a few days ahead of a rain.

Rose is chief meteorologist with the Lower Colorado River Authority. This is the Colorado River in Texas, not to be confused with the one that forms the Grand Canyon. Its upland reservoirs supply water to Austin, Texas, and irrigation supplies to a good deal of the farming country west of Houston, especially that part of the state’s rice belt.

I try never to miss one of his video blogs. He’ll give me a quick “heads up” on weather patterns affecting portions of Texas we cover with RiceFax, our weekly report. Plus, I also tend to come away with useful or entertaining bits of weather information that Rose plugs into his podcasts.

Here’s his report…