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Drought in Lower Lakes/Ohio Valley


Geos

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Definitely some differences there between the years. This year the drought seems more spread out across the nation, but not as much in the extreme level. 1954 was a strictly OV and westward drought with a tight gradient between the lower lakes and OV. 1956 a Great Plains drought. 1988 was a more widespread drought in this region with the worst further north.

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Buckeye...they start to look like pineapples...

U got to feel bad for this guy...that is a lot of clams:

http://lacrossetribu...1a4bcf887a.html

My brother's leased out about 10 acres of corn this year that they have (land north of here that has had rain). I told them in the past to just plant it themselves (they have access to the equipment) and make some money...150bu/acre x 10 acres...corn hits 8 or 9 or $10 a bushel...talking some serious money. Someday they'll learn.

Another thing that sucks about all of this is that ag products are a huge export for the US. China and many other nations buy a huge amount of grain/beef/pork/etc from us...

I don't know much about farming but that guy sounds like a moron to not have some sort of crop insurance. Esspecially given the high potential yields. What a shame.

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Chicago/ORD...

June:

1. 0.12" - 1922

2. 0.55" - 1904

3. 0.76" - 2005

4. 0.78" - 1956

5. 0.90" - 2012

6. 0.91" - 1910

7. 0.94" - 1886

8. 0.95" - 1991

9. 1.03" - 1936

10. 1.05" - 1988

July:

1. 0.22" - 1936

2. 0.42" - 1934

3. 0.56" - 2012 (Through the 16th)

4. 0.58" - 1874

5. 0.60" - 1894

6. 1.05" - 1887

7. 1.10" - 1941

8. 1.29" - 1940

9. 1.32" - 1991

10. 1.33" - 1945

Summer (June-Aug):

1. 1.46" - 2012 (Through July 16th)

2. 3.16" - 1894

3. 5.08" - 1991

4. 5.18" - 2005

5. 5.54" - 1936

6. 5.57" - 1922

7. 5.62" - 1918

8. 5.78" - 1910

9. 5.85" - 1886

10. 5.85" - 1919

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30 day total precipitation maps through the morning of July 16.

A couple of specks of nada in southern Wisconsin, far east central Illinois, and central Indiana.

Midwest map

Zoomed in map of Indiana. Note the areas of zero precipitation in and around Indianapolis.

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30 day total precipitation maps through the morning of July 16.

A couple of specks of nada in southern Wisconsin, far east central Illinois, and central Indiana.

Midwest map

Zoomed in map of Indiana. Note the areas of zero precipitation in and around Indianapolis.

I dont believe that 2-3" in Madison county. I mean, I'm sure it happened we had some heavy rain, just seems over done.

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From tonight's 6pm local- CTV Kitchener discusses the drought in the area. Some areas in the Region received around 0.75" this weekend from thunderstorms, but it had little to no effect apparently. Nadia is standing in the middle of the Grand River on the east side of Kitchener in the beginning of the video, and then the next river seen is the Speed River in Cambridge with the GRCA officer talking about reservoir levels. There are tall levee's built around the Grand and sometimes the river will top them in the Spring. Looks like a foot or two of water is running through it right now.

http://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=721882&playlistId=1.881317&binId=1.815924

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I'm really getting tired of constantly watering things in the yard, I kind of fear what the water bill will be after all is said and done...yikes. Never seen it so dry.

Officials here say watering once every two weeks is fine as long as it comes out to be an inch of water. Or, 0.5" per week.

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I'm really getting tired of constantly watering things in the yard, I kind of fear what the water bill will be after all is said and done...yikes. Never seen it so dry.

we have inground sprinklers for our lawn and even though we water on odd/even days and the day we can water we sometimes do morning and night, we still are getting brown spots. I too fear what our water and electic bill for A/C is going to be.

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Maybe it's just me, but I could give two ****s how green a lawn is at anyone's house that I know. Expelling thousands of gallons of fresh drinking water onto a lawn seems like an enormous waste to me considering 90% of the population probably wouldn't notice either way. Fresh water supply probably won't ever become a problem for any of us in our lifetimes but come on, do we really need to waste so much on keeping lawns green? Watering vegetable gardens is one thing, but grass? Really?

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Maybe it's just me, but I could give two ****s how green a lawn is at anyone's house that I know. Expelling thousands of gallons of fresh drinking water onto a lawn seems like an enormous waste to me considering 90% of the population probably wouldn't notice either way. Fresh water supply probably won't ever become a problem for any of us in our lifetimes but come on, do we really need to waste so much on keeping lawns green? Watering vegetable gardens is one thing, but grass? Really?

For me it's not so much the lawn as it is the garden. Me and my family have gardened for years and have built up quite a collection of interesting plants, if anything the grass just gets to looking real ugly, but that's much easier replaced than say, a bunch of perennial flowers/shrubs that have been around for years.

Besides, if I'm being honest, my lawn never looks very good, anyway. :lol:

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Maybe it's just me, but I could give two ****s how green a lawn is at anyone's house that I know. Expelling thousands of gallons of fresh drinking water onto a lawn seems like an enormous waste to me considering 90% of the population probably wouldn't notice either way. Fresh water supply probably won't ever become a problem for any of us in our lifetimes but come on, do we really need to waste so much on keeping lawns green? Watering vegetable gardens is one thing, but grass? Really?

Not just you :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

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Year to date precipitation totals and departures (January 1 - July 16)

Bloomington*: 12.84" -14.73"

Evansville: 13.00" -13.14"

Fort Wayne: 11.05" -10.14"

Indianapolis: 15.15" -9.04"

Indianapolis Eagle Creek: 13.39" -10.25"

Lafayette*: 11.57" -8.76"

Muncie: 15.11" -7.45"

Shelbyville: 13.10" -11.51"

South Bend: 14.95" -4.57"

Terre Haute*: 12.91" -12.43"

Valparaiso: 12.86" -6.31"

Summer precipitation totals and departures (June 1 - July 16)

Bloomington*: 1.09" -6.59"

Evansville: 1.62" -4.28"

Fort Wayne: 0.70" -5.69"

Indianapolis: 0.09" -6.70"

Indianapolis Eagle Creek: 0.25" -6.58"

Lafayette*: 0.82" -5.49"

Muncie: 2.87" -4.12"

Shelbyville: 0.05" -6.78"

South Bend: 3.65" -2.15"

Terre Haute*: 0.61" -6.29"

Valparaiso: 3.09" -3.10"

*indicates some days missing.

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The Rock River is about as low as I've ever seen it. The official observation a bit earlier (Joslin) has it at 3.88ft. That's about 4-5ft lower than normal. It's been as high as 19.2ft in the flood of 2002. The headwaters start up in far southern Wisconsin and run through Rockford.

The Mississippi in the QC is a little over 6ft. It reached as high as 22.6ft back in the flood of '93. It too is about 4-5ft lower than normal.

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Saw this photo on Wunderground just now.

Caption read:

Boats sit on the bottom in a dry cove at Morse Reservoir in Noblesville, Ind., Monday, July 16, 2012. The reservoir is down nearly 6 feet from normal levels and being lowered 1 foot every five days to provide water for Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

133-800.jpg

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Maybe it's just me, but I could give two ****s how green a lawn is at anyone's house that I know. Expelling thousands of gallons of fresh drinking water onto a lawn seems like an enormous waste to me considering 90% of the population probably wouldn't notice either way. Fresh water supply probably won't ever become a problem for any of us in our lifetimes but come on, do we really need to waste so much on keeping lawns green? Watering vegetable gardens is one thing, but grass? Really?

I don't mind people watering their lawns....but i'm biased as this drought is costing me roughly 6k a week in loss of sales for my landscape company....It is costing my employees quite a bit in loss of hours/wages and will be taking a crap on my bottom line when it comes time to feed the family and heat the home over the winter....

On the flip side...i haven't watered my front lawn once and i swear i saw some tumble weed roll across it the other day. I do water my backyard, but that's because I have a wacky 4 year old and a 1 year old learning to walk....i'm trying to avoid concusions and stiches needed for their feet when the kids play in the backyard...

I have only watered my backyard once a week from about 10-11:30.....rotating the sprinkler around....the grass has remained green and the ground soft....but not really grown much at all....(i have now been doing this for about 5 weeks and will most likely continue until we get some legit rains)

I know you were strictly talking from an asthetics point of view of "how green the grass looks"....and I would tend to agree with your thoughts...but, alas, there are also economical implications to how green the grass is which has hit home directly with your's truely....

how does that rain dance go again?! Or how about just a cloudy day for the love of pete?!? lol...cheers

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Was at a seed meeting today where we were told that 300 acres of corn for seed was destroyed in Northern Indiana this week. That corn was under irrigation, but extended period of heat at pollination caused the crop to fail. So even if it starts raining in the next week a lot of seed production, at least on the corn side will be taken out. So this drought is going to have at the the very least a two year effect on Midwest agriculture.

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