Eastland -- you're having the same problem I have in my teaching! It's so hard to generalize. For example, the western SD ponds frequently dry due to drought, while the eastern SD ponds rarely do. However, eastern ponds are much more likely to winterkill (more snow, longer period of cold, thicker ice, etc.). Even in a single state such as ours, we range from little precipitation in the west (12 inches annual average) to more than 30 inches in the southeast. Winters are much more mild in the west than east. And so on.......
