“Other places might have several drouths in a single summer, Texas was more likely to have several summers in a single drouth. Drouth here did not mean a complete absence of rain.It meant extended periods of deficient rainfall, when the effects of one rain wore off long before the next one came so that there was no carryover of benefits, no continuity. . . . All this summer it had showered but three times. Each time, the sun broke out from behind the paltry clouds and the west wind swept in furnace hot, stealing the scant moisture before the grass had time to taste the life the brief rainfall had promised.”

Elmer Kelton. The Time it Never Rained