Did you know there's a catastrophic drought occuring right here in the US?

[donsu]

http://dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/8/18/18530/9407


(there is a map that also covers Alaska and Hawaii that can animated at the maps site that shows how the drought is worsening)

If not, you're not alone.

In fact, we knew there were "concerns," pockets of dry conditions here and there, but really had no clue how bad and widespread until recently. See, we (myself, spouse and four children, ages 4-9) have been traveling via RV for throughout the US for ten of the past 15 months (the last four for Draft Gore 2008 PAC), starting in Maine last June, and have visited most states east of the Mississippi, and, more recently, a half dozen on the west side. We're currently holed up in the Black Hills of western South Dakota, having traversed the state from East to West earlier this week. Earlier this month, we spent time in Wisconsin, the U.P. of Michigan and Minnesota, and the entire month of July in Iowa.

-snip-

----
As of Aug. 13, NSA officials reported that only 4 percent of the South Dakota sunflower crop was rated as good and 30 percent as fair. None of the state's sunflower crop was rated excellent, 27 percent was considered poor and 39 percent was ranked as very poor.
---

According to the according to the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, more than 60% of the US is experiencing abnormally dry or drought conditions, stretching from Georgia to Arizona and across the north through North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Montana and Wisconsin.

The drought conditions have led to perfect conditions for wildfires, however; Nebraska alone has lost over 65,000 acres of grasslands to wildfires. It has also had a real effect on power generation in the region, as hydro-electric dams reduce output as reservoirs dry up. This past Tuesday, we were camped below the Big Bend Dam on the Missouri, one dam downstream from the one noted in the linked article, and water levels were at lows not seen since the dam's construction in 1963. All told, the Western Area Power Administration has seen a 40% decrease in power output this year. To compensate, they are expecting an 18% increase in rates in 2006 and 2007.

-snip - this snip holds 4 more maps

I know you're all wondering, well, if it's really all that bad, how come we haven't heard much about it? Well, if you live in the affected regions, from Texas to Montana and east to upper Wisconsin, then chances are, you have. A search of Google News on the terms "Great Plains" and "drought" retrieved 265 references over the past month. However, if you live on either coast and get your news from, say, the New York Times, Washington Post and/or Los Angeles Times, you might have missed their coverage. In fact, the same search terms with any of these sources added came up empty. CNN and Fox News were no better. Thus for much of the US population, this potentially catastrophic event is no where on the radar.

Unfortunately, the USDA, and in particular, Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns, doesn't seem all that concerned, despite Johanns former position as governor of Nebraska.
-snip-
----------------------------------


tick, tick, tick

[elehhhhna]

1. You heretical sceince nuts are gettin on my nerves.

[Bobbieo]

3. elehaha above

It's you not so open-minded people who make a sham out of DU!!! I, for one, am an Arizonan and see nothing but sunny days ahead during our so called monsoon season. I'm very concerned about the drought and our water supply!!!

[annabanana]

9. (oh bobbbieo..)

She only just forgot her :sarcasm: tag.

It's the repugs who don't believe in science, remember?

[elehhhhna]

10. I don't use the sarc tag. Get it or don't get it.--tough noogies.

bobbio, sorry if I scared you.

[Subdivisions]

12. Are you serious?

Ok, I got it! LOL

[acmavm]

2. Check out the maps.

http://drought.unl.edu/monitor/currspi.htm

[baldingrockwarlord2]

4. oh, THAT drought....

for a minute there I thought you might be referring to the drought in the well of true democracy that has taken place in this once great nation. I'm afraid that well of idealism is just about tapped dry because the koolaid of ignorance has replaced the water of logic and values as the drink of choice. We'll all die of thirst if we don't stand up and do something.

[sybylla]

5. Considering Large parts of northern and central Wisconsin got

little or no rain for over 4 weeks straight following a fairly dry spring, that the corn crop in a lot of places is toast, the maps looks pretty tame.

Now in the past three weeks we've finally returned to more normal levels of precip. But I'm still surprised that the three-month precip map only shows us an inch down and the other maps have us at even-steven when our weathermen are happy to point out that total accumulation in this area is way down for the year.

[Kali]

13. hahahahhaha (subject is NOT funny, but....)

no rain for 4 weeks? We went from August 24, 2005 to June 20th of this year with only 3/4 of an inch of rain over all that time! ("normal" is 16+ inches per year with winter getting 5 or 6 inches of that)

Thankfully we have been having a more normal summer than in the last ten years. (fingers crossed, knock on wood, etc etc)

[SoCalDem]

18. We have not had and precipitation since APRIL

but then we live in a desert area, so that's normal for us :(

I actually like rain now..

[patricia92243]

6. But, but, but .... there is no such thing as globel warming - Bush told me

so, and I know that he knows best. :sarcasm:

[Lars39]

8. No,no...he now admits there's global warming,

but he is not convinced that mankind has contributed to it.
Oh, and he formed a task force or committee or apppointed a czar or something to 'study global warming'. :banghead:

[Uncle Joe]

7. This is where that tree falling in the forest business comes in,

if no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound? If the mass corporate media does not report the drought, it will not make a sound either, at least in the areas not effected. Of course the important thing is, the tree still fell just as the drought still happened.

So the media can continue to put the American People's heads in the sands so as not to hear the sound, but only for so long. Eventually the people on the coasts will wonder where did all these refugees come from? Of course the Repukes will say the illegal immigrants are to blame.

[Ferretherder]

11. Here in West Monroe, LA,...

...we haven't had any measurable amount of rain in about 2 months, or more, come to think of it. In my 50 years in this state, I have NEVER seen a 'dry spell' to match this. Trees - BIG, OLD, DEEP ROOTED TREES - are starting to die. It's just a little bit scary.

[LizW]

26. Dying trees here, too

South of Birmingham, Alabama. Huge oaks have gone completely brown. The pines are dropping needles like crazy. The wild dogwoods are going to be all gone soon.

We had no rain, none at all, during the entire month of June.

We usually have some dry times in September and October, but this was really early.

I felt bad for the people who spend lots of money on their lawns -- until we drove through south Alabama and saw the devastated crops.

[Ferretherder]

27. Hey, but thank goodness...

...Rush says that all this 'global warming crap' is a bunch of hooey!

....otherwise, I might be worried.

[Subdivisions]

14. I live in one of the two

D4 areas on that map.

We had a couple of squaw lines pass through early in the summer and it looked like we might have a relatively wet season. NOT! It dried up and we haven't seen more than an isolated cloudburst since. The field I walk my dog in used to be lush grass. It's desert now.

But, on a broader scale, I think we may be in the process of a shifting in desertification eastward and northeastward from the tradition desert areas of the Southwest. I'm convinced this is a result of global warming.

[opihimoimoi]

15. We have DRY TIMES even here in Hawaii..and when rain comes

Its in buckets...floods and dams bursting...

followed by small kine rain...and dryness...grasses are brown unless watered.

[Uben]

16. High and dry!

I live in the portion of North Texas that is in the "severe drought". I live on a private lake (approx. 600 acres) that is now over 4 ft low. It is a shallow lake to begin with, and is now all but useless for water recreation. We are some 18" short on rainfall for the year, and have not seen a run-off rain since the first of May! Many say this is a 50 yr drought, as it has not been this dry since the early fifties in this area.

We normally have springs that keep the lake full, but they have all dried up, signalling that the aquifers are at very low levels.

[Dems Will Win]

17. They're talking about having to shut down the nuke in MN

No more cool river water left to make steam from the reactor.

Nukes can thus never be a solution to global warming, as droughts will increase.

[Blue_In_AK]

19. I wish we could share with you guys down south...

After two very dry summers, 2004 and 2005, we've had a wet one, not unusually so, but more like we used to have in the old days. We've had rain the past 10 days, and the small streams north of here are flooding. It hasn't been much of a summer for getting out, but the coolness is welcome.

[knitter4democracy]

20. Just talk with the farmers.

I'm seeing them break out the irrigators--and I live in Michigan. We're in a drought here of several years' worth. Granted, that's in comparison to our normal, which is pretty wet, but with almost no snow here last year, we're hurting.

[womanofthehills]

21. Weird weather in NM - rain , rain, rain for 2 months now

Instead of the high desert, my land looks like a lush green wonderland. We usually have a monsoon but this rain started really early and just doesn't stop. We had no snow last winter for the first time ever and were in a severe drought and suddenly it just starting raining. We are all blown away - Lots of flooding.

[Taoschick]

23. I t was kind of strange

To see Hatch underwater.

We had a very dry winter and now we're having a very active monsoon season. It all evens out and I'll take the summer rains if it lessens the chances of fires. I remember this spring all the gloom and doom stories about how this was going to be the worst season for fires on record and then the rain started at the end of June. Fire restrictions were lifted and we didn't burn down.

Flash floods are just a part of living in NM. Especially from Albuquerque south. The records show flooding in NM for the last 250 years.

Droughts are normal. Virtually every climate suffers periodic droughts. We had a bad one when I lived in Georgia in the late 90s. When it finally broke, it rained for 3 months straight.

[mnhtnbb]

22. NC also has patches of drought.

Being a weather channel junkie, I know about the drought conditions all over the country. Things are setting up for another great dustbowl of Depression era days.

We have a naturalized yard on a hillside: lots of trees. We've had to cut down several dogwoods that succumbed to the stress of drought last year followed with the 100 degree heat and no rain we've had for periods of a week or two this year. We were out on our deck tonight and noticed that another dogwood isn't going to make it.

[OneBlueSky]

24. "So Long, It's Been Good To Know Yuh" . . . by Woody Guthrie . . .

I've sung this song, but I'll sing it again,
Of the place that I lived on the wild windy plains,
In the month called April, county called Gray,
And here's what all of the people there say:

(Chorus)
So long, it's been good to know yuh;
So long, it's been good to know yuh;
So long, it's been good to know yuh.
This dusty old dust is a-gettin' my home,
And I got to be driftin' along.

A dust storm hit, an' it hit like thunder;
It dusted us over, an' it covered us under;
Blocked out the traffic an' blocked out the sun,
Straight for home all the people did run,
Singin':

(Chorus)

We talked of the end of the world, and then
We'd sing a song an' then sing it again.
We'd sit for an hour an' not say a word,
And then these words would be heard:

(Chorus)

Sweethearts sat in the dark and sparked,
They hugged and kissed in that dusty old dark.
They sighed and cried, hugged and kissed,
Instead of marriage, they talked like this:
"Honey..."

(Chorus)

Now, the telephone rang, an' it jumped off the wall,
That was the preacher, a-makin' his call.
He said, "Kind friend, this may the end;
An' you got your last chance of salvation of sin!"

The churches was jammed, and the churches was packed,
An' that dusty old dust storm blowed so black.
Preacher could not read a word of his text,
An' he folded his specs, an' he took up collection,
Said:

(Chorus)
So long, it's been good to know yuh;
So long, it's been good to know yuh;
So long, it's been good to know yuh.
This dusty old dust is a-gettin' my home,
And I got to be driftin' along.

[Toots]

25. I have a friend in Alaska who says this is the wettest coldest summer in

over sixty years. Alaska is suffering from La Nina they say and getting virtually no sun. In fact my friend just told me they just set a new record for most consecutive days of rainfall. :shrug: