Ellinwood Posted June 28, 2012 Share Posted June 28, 2012 Drought conditions are expanding over much of the US. Parts of the Southeast and monsoonal moisture in the Southwest may improve conditions somewhat over the next week, but in many areas it's expected to worsen. Currently, 51% of the CONUS is under drought conditions, up from 47% last week and up from 37% last month. Extreme drought is currently at 8.5%, up from 5.2% last week. However, extreme drought is not as widespread as last year, which was at 18%. Main site: http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/ More stats: http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/DM_tables.htm?conus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoosier Posted June 28, 2012 Share Posted June 28, 2012 Yeah it's getting bad around here. Lot of counties have burn bans in place. Grass fires have been popping up in recent days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeatMiser Posted June 28, 2012 Share Posted June 28, 2012 No wonder that ridge is not leaving... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carvers Gap Posted June 28, 2012 Share Posted June 28, 2012 Drought conditions are expanding over much of the US. Parts of the Southeast and monsoonal moisture in the Southwest may improve conditions somewhat over the next week, but in many areas it's expected to worsen. Currently, 51% of the CONUS is under drought conditions, up from 47% last week and up from 37% last month. Extreme drought is currently at 8.5%, up from 5.2% last week. However, extreme drought is not as widespread as last year, which was at 18%. Main site: http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/ More stats: http://droughtmonito...ables.htm?conus What is driving the drought? Is the atmoshpere "remembering" La Nina and will potential Nino conditions lessen the drought. Seems to me that it would. Hoping it does. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nikolai Posted July 7, 2012 Share Posted July 7, 2012 http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/DM_tables.htm?conus Ridiculous. 76% are in at least D0 and 56% in D1 or worse, an increase of 4% for both categories in the past week. Lots of D2 showing up across the country too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uncle W Posted July 7, 2012 Share Posted July 7, 2012 lets hope the Monsoon season is a good one...I wonder if we are in the same set up as the dust bowl era...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lookout Posted July 7, 2012 Share Posted July 7, 2012 The lack of rain compaigned with the absurd temps (up to 110 here), has just been terrible. As I posted in the SE forum, it was so hot, it actually scorched and killed the western facing side of a blackgum tree in my uncles yard (while the eastern side, which is also in the shade is healthy). That is just incredible and I've never seen that before here. Plus people that were growing corn here, not only saw their corn wilt but the top or entire stalk was completely killed...and some were watering them on a daily basis...so it wasn't the lack of water...simply the insane heat and the incredibly high temps in the sun. Ponds here are now mud muddles essentially. There was something on the news the other day that a large lake here (lake lanier) was losing an inch per day via evaporation simply due to the heat. But with Small ponds though they surely had water temps well into the 90s..maybe even 100 in the shallow parts? Especially since the ones here are fully in the sun all day. And it was amazing how fast they dropped after a few days when this heat wave started here. As for rain, I have not had any consistent/respectable rains for any length of time virtually all year. I picked up an incredible 0.25 yesterday, which is at the top as far as total in the last several months. Only one or two times did I get more. Just sad. As discussed in the SE forum though, there is hope on the horizon with a wet pattern setting up for at least a week or so for the southeast per models. I Can only hope I don't keep getting screwed, which has also been the theme this year here which is nothing unusual for me. But hopefully this knocks a big dent in the drought conditions here. It does look promising. So it goes without saying things are in desperate shape here, as well as those to the south of me across central ga (which in every drought has the worst conditions overall). At the very least though, regardless of the rain, at least this extreme heat is going to relax and even below normal temps could be possible on same days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoosier Posted July 8, 2012 Share Posted July 8, 2012 lets hope the Monsoon season is a good one...I wonder if we are in the same set up as the dust bowl era...... A ton of the high temp records that have been falling lately were set in the 1930's. At this point we are not quite in that same level of drought on a national scale but it is starting to resemble that in some areas. The current top news headline on the NWS Indianapolis website actually reads "Drought Conditions Resemble the Dust Bowl Days of the 1930s" and it's hard to argue with that when looking at what's happening on a local level. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
on_wx Posted July 8, 2012 Share Posted July 8, 2012 We got burn bans and water bans here in Waterloo Region. Nary a green blade of grass to be seen. Aside from the first weeks of June...it hasn't rain here in a long time. I'm curious to see what the North American Drought Monitor has for us through June. Ending in May it had us in a severe drought, and I'm really not sure it I've seen drought conditions this bad here. Also of note, the city distributed notices to water the city trees on the side of the road by using watering cans or rain barrel water...but not by using gardening hoses. Hasn't rained in weeks, so I guess they expect tapped water in those watering cans. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunny and Warm Posted July 8, 2012 Share Posted July 8, 2012 A ton of the high temp records that have been falling lately were set in the 1930's. At this point we are not quite in that same level of drought on a national scale but it is starting to resemble that in some areas. The current top news headline on the NWS Indianapolis website actually reads "Drought Conditions Resemble the Dust Bowl Days of the 1930s" and it's hard to argue with that when looking at what's happening on a local level. 1934 was much more severe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uncle W Posted July 8, 2012 Share Posted July 8, 2012 1934 was much more severe. NYC's hottest June Temperature was set in 1934...Alltime record was set in July 1936... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Lizard Posted July 8, 2012 Share Posted July 8, 2012 The "Corn Belt" not looking good per HPC 5 day and GFS 16 day forecasts. On a two week forecast, anyplace under two inches can't be good, an inch a week at the peak of Summer won't keep up with evaporation and evapo-transpiration. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellinwood Posted July 8, 2012 Author Share Posted July 8, 2012 The "Corn Belt" not looking good per HPC 5 day and GFS 16 day forecasts. On a two week forecast, anyplace under two inches can't be good, an inch a week at the peak of Summer won't keep up with evaporation and evapo-transpiration. Corn and other Midwest crops have been really hurting despite really early planting (record-breaking early in some cases). No big relief in sight... yield estimate just keeps going down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoosier Posted July 8, 2012 Share Posted July 8, 2012 1934 was much more severe. This year: Driest January-June periods in Indiana: 1934: 11.36" 1895: 12.54" 1988: 13.14" 1925: 13.17" 1936: 13.39" 2012: 13.51" Given what the July pattern is looking like, we may end up surpassing some of these years by months end. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdrenken Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 A great website that provides PDF file graphs with the various top crops and their specific health status. NASS USDA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
e pluribus unum Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 1988 was the last time I think so much of the country was experiencing severe drought all at once. The extreme heat that summer was similar, too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoosier Posted July 12, 2012 Share Posted July 12, 2012 Drought conditions worsened overall in the past week. 37.19% of the CONUS is now in severe drought or worse, up from 34.24% last week. D4 has now made an appearance in a small area near the OH River in W KY/S IL/S IN. D4 is also now present in parts of AR and CO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoosier Posted July 16, 2012 Share Posted July 16, 2012 http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/16/us/us-drought/index.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aslkahuna Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 Apparently, this is the most expansive drought since 1956 which was really bad in the western and Southern Plains. This one has been gathering steam since it started in the SW US in 1996. Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SN_Lover Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 Barge traffic could soon be in trouble. http://www.kmov.com/home/Barge-traffic-at-a-standstill-as-river-level-drops-during-drought--162702656.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellinwood Posted July 19, 2012 Author Share Posted July 19, 2012 This week's update... CONUS drought up 2.5% from last week to 63.54%, with a 5% increase in extreme drought to 42.23%. Some relief was seen in eastern TX and western LA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Srain Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 This week's update... CONUS drought up 2.5% from last week to 63.54%, with a 5% increase in extreme drought to 42.23%. Some relief was seen in eastern TX and western LA. You think? Last year I had just around 7 inches for the entire year. 2012 to date... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ginx snewx Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 Troubling Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellinwood Posted July 19, 2012 Author Share Posted July 19, 2012 You think? Last year I had just around 7 inches for the entire year. 2012 to date... Hah yep just a little bit of rain... Good to see, though hopefully Mother Nature doesn't overdo it now. Send it back north! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brewers Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 Much of the southern great lakes received a 1-2 inch soaking last night. Guess we will have to wait till the next update to see if it made much of a difference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Lizard Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 Looking somewhat unlikely this year, but nothing is impossible. Steve's favorite tropical cyclone brough 3 inches or more of rain to about half of Iowa. Little late in the growing season, but... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaculaWeather Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 Here's a great way to compare one period to another: http://www.daculaweather.com/4_drought_archive.php Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoosier Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 The percentage of the CONUS in severe drought right now (42.23%) is the highest in the 12 year history of the drought monitor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uncle W Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 the 1950's and 1960's were the driest decades for NYC...from 1971 to 2011 there was a big increase in precipitation...so far 2012 has below average precipitation...Every decade but the 1990's had a year with less than 40" of precipitation...Are we at the beginning of a dry cycle?...Time will tell... NYC decade precipitation averages since 1870. 10 yr.............Ave. per year. lowest and highest year 1870's..............43.73"........39.25".......51.26" 1880's..............43.54"........35.37".......57.16" 1890's..............41.84"........35.37".......48.26" 1900's..............44.84"........37.44".......58.32" 1910's..............44.24"........33.72".......58.00" 1920's..............44.92"........37.76".......56.06" 1930's..............44.60"........33.85".......53.53" 1940's..............42.16"........36.24".......48.51" 1950's..............39.59"........35.58".......45.20" 1960's..............39.74"........26.09".......48.54" 1970's..............52.31"........35.29".......67.03" 1980's..............49.96"........38.11".......80.56" 1990's..............47.29"........40.42".......60.92" 2000's..............53.18"........35.92".......61.70" 2010's..............61.09"........49.37".......72.81" as of 12/31/2011 1870- 2009................45.14" 1980- 2009................50.14" 1870- 1969................42.92" 1970- 2009................50.64" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QVectorman Posted July 20, 2012 Share Posted July 20, 2012 My sister is an agronomist for a crop company in Michigan and said the areas that didn't see any rain have about 2 weeks before the corn crop will be entirely wiped out. Or basically if it doesn't rain before it tassels (2 weeks away). She said it's already a given that the yields are going to be drastically impeded with corn that has survived thus far. But that many farmers have already lost their corn in SE Michigan. Colleagues in Indiana told her that most of the state's corn has already tasseled and they have unofficially lost most of their corn crop. Soy beans aren't great, they have aborted flowering for now which dictates the amount of beans each plant will produce but say they have a chance to bounce back to 100% if the region gets decent rain by early/mid August. Things are not looking good for the top 3 producing states of corn and soybeans. If they don't get a decent dose of rain in the next two weeks (since the crops across the midwest are almost all at the same development stage for the most part) the U.S. could lose most of it's corn and soybean crop. That means huge price hikes at the grocery store and probably the pump...ethanol. At that point if the drought gets worse it's impact will be on paper with the indices and not much else. The damage and monetary toll will have been done. About the only thing that will still matter to most people is if their lawn is brown or not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.