Temperature and precipitation conditions in mid-June across the primary crop regions in the United States look similar to the widespread drought year of 2012 when, at the time, there also was little or no concern about drought, a climatologist said Thursday.
Brian Fuchs, climatologist at the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, said as temperatures continue to rise heading into the summer months, climatologists are watching closely for signs of flash drought — often brought on by a drop in precipitation and increased temperatures and winds.
“It looks eerily similar to what we saw in 2012 when there was no sign of drought,” Fuchs said. “Right now, we’re not anticipating another 2012.”
Most of the Corn Belt and upper Midwest region have seen temperatures anywhere from 5 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit above normal in the past 30 days. Some 100-degree temperatures hit the region staring last week in parts of Nebraska and the Dakotas.
High temperatures in May in areas of the Dakotas and Montana and other northern states were in the all-time top 10, Fuchs said. Temps across the rest of the Corn Belt region were in the top 20 all-time.
... “Coupled with the higher temperatures, some areas are starting to stand out” in terms of drought developing, he said. That includes southeastern Kansas and parts of Missouri, Indiana and Illinois.
With precipitation departures in parts of Missouri from 6 inches to 9 inches below normal, along with arriving summer heat, he said climatologists will be keeping close watch on the state.
Temperatures for remainder of 2016 are not encouraging, he said, as the outlook is for most areas of the country to see above-average temps of 2 to 5 degrees. Areas of the upper Midwest, including the Dakotas, Nebraska, Iowa and Minnesota, are “pushing for well above normal so far,” Fuchs said.
To make an intelligent assessment of that you would have to know how many land areas undergo random droughts in any average year and then compare this years data to the average. There were always some droughts and some of those quite severe if you were trying to live in the effected area. The question is are we getting more net drought area now or is it a wash?dohboi wrote:Just to point out, there were killer droughts on Somalia, India, Pakistan, and less lethal but still serious droughts Japan and a number of other places around the world this year. (I'm not going to supply all the links now...just type in the country name and add 'drought' and you'll get plenty of info.)
Really, there's just too much catastrophic news to keep up.
have called an end to the school year two weeks early as the country suffers from a severe and prolonged drought.
Three reservoirs which supply the largest city, La Paz, are almost dry, and water rationing is in effect until further notice.
As reported by the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC), hundreds (at least 212) new fires have started in the Southeast, with 30 of them classified as large wildfires (100 acres or more), and burn bans were widespread across the region. Streams were at record and near-record low levels. Severe agricultural impacts (stock ponds drying up, winter feed being used to keep cattle alive since fall started) were widespread across the South and Southeast.
(Bloomberg) Auke Piek, a 44-year-old Dutch engineer, says he has a solution to the Caribbean’s worst drought in half a century — and it lies hundreds of miles away in the tropical rain forests of Suriname.
This week, a boat will tow a giant bag made from PVC-coated fabric with enough water to fill an Olympic-size swimming pool from Suriname to drought-stricken Barbados and Curacao. It will be a test run for a technology Piek said he wants to expand to other Caribbean islands, and eventually, as far afield as the Middle East.
pstarr wrote:Newfie wrote:I think the salient point is the increasing frequency and severity of drought. Which, if I am correct, is not to be denied.
I sure don't deny an increasing chaotic weather regime. I only question its overall severity and consequences.
Barring a runaway event (which IPCC-5 and myself find highly unlikely) these hurricanes, droughts, floods etc are of little importance, nothing compared to runaway human population growth and resource depletion. And will most certainly be mitigated by a homeostatic Earth Mother and peak oil.
I think the salient point is the increasing frequency and severity of drought. Which, if I am correct, is not to be denied.
There is not enough evidence at present to suggest high confidence in observed trends in dryness due to lack of direct observations, some geographical inconsistencies in the trends, and some dependencies of inferred trends on the index choice. There is medium confidence that since the 1950s some regions of the world have experienced more intense and longer droughts (e.g., southern Europe, west Africa) but also opposite trends exist in other regions (e.g., central North America, northwestern Australia).
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