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Escalating Drought in the U.S.


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Ya I just posted it in there as you were posting. I can't take credit for the graphs though. I got them from a link from one of the posters above.

No Problem, it seems to be public USDA data. Thanks to those who were able to point out this resource..

For Example, here is Wisconsin: http://www.nass.usda.gov/Charts_and_Maps/Crop_Progress_&_Condition/2012/WI_2012.pdf

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Palmer Drought Severity Index, for the week ending July 21:

palmer.gif

Staing the obvious, but that is ugly. US food prices, US gasoline prices (since automotive ethanol is generally made with corn) and rising prices for US grain exports due to scarcity. Especially if this is a multi-year event, as has happened before. I wonder how much of the readily useable acreage for crops is irrigated, and how much is completely dependent on rainfall.

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Most of the larger trees have fared well enough here so far, but the smaller trees have begun to take moderate to severe damage and shallow rooted species are starting to lose leaves. I fear another 4-6+ weeks of this will start leading to outright large tree death in these parts. Most of the crops here were doomed a couple of weeks ago.

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Latest drought monitor update (July 24) has these amounts of areas in each state in exceptional drought, of course the highest category.

Arkansas: 33.6%

Georgia: 23.4%

Indiana: 18.7%

Kentucky: 12.9%

Kansas: 9.3%

Missouri: 8.1%

Illinois: 7.1%

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Latest drought monitor update (July 24) has these amounts of areas in each state in exceptional drought, of course the highest category.

Arkansas: 33.6%

Georgia: 23.4%

Indiana: 18.7%

Kentucky: 12.9%

Kansas: 9.3%

Missouri: 8.1%

Illinois: 7.1%

Yes, it truly sucks here right now. It's a little better in my area than central Georgia but not much.

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The drought maps are completely incorrect for my county in South Carolina. Although it says it isn't extreme here, it hasn't rained much at my house (northern Lexington next to Lake Murray) anything well in about a month. I walk outside and see dust storms and even weeds dying lately. I tried to rescue some tomato plants recently and they can't even make it out there (they're in a young stage though).

Anyway, the point I'm saying.. and I have asked the NWS of Columbia about this.. is.. everytime a storm or even rain developes it either a) disappears around the lake or b ) forms far away from it in the southern part of the county.

I have yet to have any explanation why precipitation (even snow) decides to disappear 90% of the time around the lake. I do know it started after they lowered it to build a backup dam.

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Question; should the 1930s drought and heat waves not have a asterisk attached to them? And if not officially, at least in our minds?

While the '30s were hot and dry as climate cycles would have dictated, this was exacerbated by widespread poor farming practices. Who doesn't know the Dust Bowl was in part a man-made event? Would the drought and heat waves have been as intense without man's interference? Would I be wrong to say "no"?

Perhaps I'm missing something but why do I always see people (amateur, pro, media, et.al.) making comparisons as if the 1930s and 2010s were a level playing field? Does anyone believe atmospheric conditions of the 1930s would produce the same results today? If so, why?

Is it that everyone in the weather world, nay, the entire country innately makes a mental adjustment for the difference? While some of us might, I doubt that's a universal practice. Don't we need more extreme atmospheric conditions now to get the same results seen in the 1930s?

How would one make an educated guess as to man's contribution to the 1930's climate and hydrology seen in the U.S.? Not an easy question I'm sure but is it irrelevant?

Thank you.

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The drought maps are completely incorrect for my county in South Carolina. Although it says it isn't extreme here, it hasn't rained much at my house (northern Lexington next to Lake Murray) anything well in about a month. I walk outside and see dust storms and even weeds dying lately. I tried to rescue some tomato plants recently and they can't even make it out there (they're in a young stage though).

Anyway, the point I'm saying.. and I have asked the NWS of Columbia about this.. is.. everytime a storm or even rain developes it either a) disappears around the lake or b ) forms far away from it in the southern part of the county.

I have yet to have any explanation why precipitation (even snow) decides to disappear 90% of the time around the lake. I do know it started after they lowered it to build a backup dam.

Well, the map does say that it focuses on the broad scale and that local conditions may vary.

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Most of you know where these are but I think this page makes it much quicker to skim around and view the different areas and they are grouped by state and by region. There is also a drought tendency map a little further down the page as well as a link to all of the crop pages.

http://www.daculaweather.com/4_drought_state.php

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This latest update saw an increase in both the area of the contiguous US with no drought conditions and unfortunately also an increase in exceptional drought up to 6.26%. The main areas of drought intensification appear to be Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, and Oklahoma.

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Fact: The temperature at 9am today was the warmest since I began measuring 12 hours ago. O!M!G!

The drought is bad, but 12 years is a pretty small window for analyzing climate events.

Fozz wasn't making any climate commentary. I think you read too much into his post. Simply pointing out an interesting fact.

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