Beautiful Spring weather has finally arrived! As I agreed in an email exchange with Sean Kinsell, Spring is being very kind to Philly (as it is to Tokyo).

But not so fast!

Already, just as we try to enjoy the nice weather, moralistic overtones about "dry weather" (soon to be a "drought") are creeping into the news:

For the first March in memory, the region's farms, ball fields and backyards are virtually mud-free. That's because nature has withheld an essential ingredient: water. Barring a downpour before midnight right atop the rain gauge at Philadelphia International Airport, this will officially be the driest March since 1966.

The 0.91 inches measured since the beginning of the month is less than one-quarter of March's normal rainfall of 3.81 inches. It is even a half inch less than the average for Phoenix.

The air also has been amazingly dry. On several days this month, afternoon humidity actually dropped into the teens, lower than typical March readings in Las Vegas and Yuma, Ariz.

Should I feel guilty? I'm not sure. I know that for at least the past six years, man has been responsible for nearly every irregularity in the weather, and it's all because that moron in the White House won't sign the Kyoto Accord.

Fortunately, they're not calling it a drought "quite yet." As they say, they're holding off on the "D" word:

While droughts around here appear with a regularity that SEPTA could envy, no one is using the "D" word quite yet.

Still, the bone-dry conditions in New Jersey contributed to 511 minor fires that have charred 1,297 acres and prompted a statewide ban on open campfires. Pennsylvania has issued a fire "alert" warning but no statewide restrictions.

Nature's demand for water could become a concern. The region's trees are about to turn into six million pumps drawing moisture from the ground to feed voracious leaves.

The comparison of Philadelphia to Phoenix is not just an exercise in alliteration. Even in Phoenix, drought equals Global Warming:

Jonathan Overpeck, who directs the university- and government-funded Institute for the Study of Planet Earth at the University of Arizona, said current drought and weather disruptions signal what is to come over the next century. Twenty-five years ago, he said, scientists produced computer models of the drought that Arizona is now experiencing.

"It's going to get warmer, we're going to have more people, and we're going to have more droughts more frequently and in harsher terms," Overpeck said. "We should be at the forefront of demanding action on global warming because we're at the forefront of the impacts of global warming. . . . In the West we're seeing what's happening now."

In a previous post I remarked that "nowadays, mentioning bad weather can trigger a political diatribe."

Maybe I should amend that to include nice weather.