Drought
 

If this continues much longer, Michigan will become a dust bowl. I turned off my turf irrigation. No point to it and will save some noney on my electric bill.

I have no ide what the precip. maps are showing but I bet they're looking bad for the upper midwest.

It’s cyclical. KS is in the rare situation of almost the entire state being in no state of drought. Which is contrary to the usual year where western KS is in extreme drought conditions and the rest of the state is mild to moderate. We seem to be in a cooler and wetter pattern this year.

At 8:30 tonight....it was 85 degrees and full sun. There was thunder continually for about a half hour...but no rain.

It is going to be an intense fire season in the West, again.

Little-known factoid: the supply of wilderness firefighters this summer is low because Covid interfered with training camps for immates who volunteered to be wilderness firefighters. I hadn’t realized, until speaking with a friend who’s well informed, how much the West depends on inmate firefighters.

My across the street neighbor, bless his heart, was out in the mid-day sun trying to adjust his massive sprinklers. If this keeps up, and he keeps watering, his yard is going to be a mass of brown accented by huge green circles reminiscent of a Venn Diagram.

It would not be so bad if the did not mismanage water resources so ineptly

Farmers here are lamenting more than usual.

Local beef farmer said today with more than a hint of defeatism in him, that he and his colleagues are gonna have to get creative feeding their herds this winter. Dairy farmers, too. We were like 5" below normal the end of May but the ground staill had winter moisture.

Now...complete dust two shovels down. Powder. And hot!

Got back to the hotel late, after work after working outside all day and there’s no running water. 🤬

That’s a drought!

My yard is a soggy mess, but it's drying out. I think we've gotten 15-20 inches in this area in the last 4-6 weeks. I'd happily send 1/2 - 3/4 of that to you folks if I could.

You guys should google the Lake Mead water level.
Scary low.

We are screwed. Dry in western Oregon NOW. Waaaaay early.

In NW Ohio yesterday, it rained so heavy for 3 hours that all the fields were flooded, and overflowing onto the county roads (Yes, I turned on my hazard lights when I was down to 35 MPH, and hitting standing water occasionally). 2.5" of rain, with more forecasted today thru Friday. Our mostly trickling stream bed next to the house was running 8' deep, and covered most of my yard.

It's feast or famine here. We went over two weeks with no measurable rain in May and now we are having heavy rains every day. Dew points have skyrocketed into the 70s. Very humid. Here's a pic I just took of my office window - condensation on the windows (and everything else) is standard now:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1623238176.jpg

Lake Powell is just as bad. Starting in 2022 farmers in Arizona get their water allotments cut.

Lake Mead will reach a water level of 1,075 ft this year for the first time ever which will mean an official shortage will be declared. If it becomes too low (possible in the next couple of years) there is not enough water to move the turbines that create hydro electric power.

Weather here for the last few years has had the regular spring thunderstoms MIA.
Finally getting some now.

There are people that study tree rings, date them, map the location.
By finding patterns that match the recent present and comparing them to a pattern match in the past, a possible prediction of the next few years can be made.
Interesting stuff.

There is no drought in our area of Oklahoma.

https://www.drought.gov/states/oklahoma

There are some patchy areas of drought. Just use the link I posted and change the state name and it will pull up any state.

Fires are already starting in AZ. We got almost no rain last year, with several stretches longer than 100 days of 0 rain. It’s going to be a long hot summer, and it’s not looking like the monsoon season will provide much relief.

We are blessed with plenty of water and rain in Louisiana (maybe too much at times), although some of the aquifers are being depleted faster than many folks would like.

I worked in Lubbock on a project 10 years ago and I was amazed at how the farmers were able to grow anything out there. Most of the water came from the Ogallala aquifer and there was circular and drip irrigation and other pretty ingenious methods to irrigate the cotton etc. I really admired those folks' tenacity and ingenuity. Really great people out there.

At the time there were some bad floods in the Midwest from the Mississippi River so I wondered why couldn't the excess water be channeled somehow to the arid parts of the country. Turns out in the 1950s or 60s the feds began trying to expropriate land to create just such a channel to supply Lubbock and the surrounding area with water. I didn't believe it until I saw the right-of-way deeds in the public records. The channel was never built but the idea was there.

The whole state as well as the southwest is in drought. The most southwest corner where we live is only in moderate drought. Lucky for that I guess, but there will still be an active fire season no doubt. Our well was rated at 40 gpm. but I've heard of some in the area going dry durinig some long stretches of drought. I'm hoping this climate change situation doesn't cause critical long term dry conditions, but I'm not encouraged.