It's hard to think about our lingering drought when all it did was pour rain Tuesday night.

Yet that's what the Governor's Drought Advisory Committee met Wednesday to discuss.

With a refreshingly cool breeze blowing through the Helena Valley and more than a tinge of fall in the air, the committee hammered out a consensus that an aggressive approach must be taken to mitigate the progressively warmer temperatures Montana is experiencing and the impact of the ongoing drought.

Lest we forget our scorching July, where we experienced 28 days over 90 degrees and eight days of 100-degree temps or above and other cities across our state broke all-time heat records, we're behind their efforts.

Every move we make now, with a cooler eight months ahead, makes us better off for next summer when equally hot or hotter weather returns.

Lt. Gov. John Bohlinger and Department of Natural Resources and Conservation Director Mary Sexton advised the panel they help direct to make annual policy recommendations to the governor instead of merely monitoring the drought, which they've done in the past.

It's a good first step in collecting critical data about the effects of the drought -- and global warming in general -- on Montana specifically.

But they aren't ending there.

The committee is thinking proactively and working for better communication with all Montana citizens, particularly farmers. The panel will discuss putting a a daily drought index on the weather pages of state newspapers and creating a similar function for television news stations. It will also ponder managing reservoirs differently and working with farmers and ranchers on ways to reduce water consumption -- and impact to their crops -- during drought years.

Consider the alternatives. Warmer summers. More intense wildfires. Trout streams pushing 75 degrees and closing them off to anglers -- not to mention killing fish. Evolving farm produce. No more glaciers in Glacier.

It's not a Montana we want to envision.

We suggest we all take steps to minimize the drought in our beautiful state, beginning with contacting the Drought Advisory Committee with your thoughts on drought as they work to hammer out a concrete plan for our future.