Posted on 03/18/2021 10:32:03 PM PDT by Berlin_Freeper
With nearly two-thirds of the United States abnormally dry or worse, the government’s spring forecast offers little hope for relief, especially in the West where a devastating megadrought has taken root and worsened.
Weather service and agriculture officials warned of possible water use cutbacks in California and the Southwest, increased wildfires, low levels in key reservoirs such as Lake Mead and Lake Powell and damage to wheat crops.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s official spring outlook Thursday sees an expanding drought with a drier than normal April, May and June for a large swath of the country from Louisiana to Oregon. including some areas hardest hit by the most severe drought. And nearly all of the continental United States is looking at warmer than normal spring, except for tiny parts of the Pacific Northwest and southeast Alaska, which makes drought worse.
“We are predicting prolonged and widespread drought,” National Weather Service Deputy Director Mary Erickson said. “It’s definitely something we’re watching and very concerned about.”
NOAA expects the spring drought to hit 74 million people.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
Speaking for the southwest, we had 1.25 inches of snow on the ground, Wednesday morning; and the temp overnight, Wednesday to Thursday, was 25 deg. F.
The Humboldt Bay region of Calif has had only two thirds of normal rainfall for the wet season. I think the mountain snow pack is worse than that...
Here in Tulsa, it rained most of the last 2 days. At 12:30 am, it is 46 degrees, which will be the high for the day. This global warming really sucks
I wish someone from out West would come and take all the water standing in my back yard...
(It’s not flood water, per se, such as from an overflowing creek or river, it’s just rainwater with no place to go.)
We’ve had precious little precip here in NH, but the snowpack is so deep that even with the warmth, it’s really taking its good old time melting.
It’s too weird.
I don’t believe them anymore. Don’t trust these things.
Bad timing, warmists. A very wet system just crossed out of Southern California dumping moisture all over the Southwest. We got two feet of snow in Denver city and three feet outside the city. Drought over.
Here in Germany it’s been a wet, cold winter. I’m staring at snow falling, temps hovering around 32°F. Sloppy and ugly day outside. Last year, we were planting flowers and wearing shorts.
Snowpack above normal in WA Cascades.
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Seattle has 0.78 inches for March. Normal is 2.11 for this date.
However, our six month rainy season is about 10% above average, and our rain total since 01 January is more than 25% above average.
We expect snow in the Cascades over the weekend, and rain in the lower elevations.
Cascade snow cover looks a little light for this date (18 March), but I do not know the official measurement.
My view of the Olympic Mountains - northwest of Seattle - has been permanently blocked by several new buildings.
Sometimes the Olympics get completely buried in spring snow.
Maps: U.S. Drought Monitor, U.S. Monthly Drought Outlook and U.S. Seasonal Drought Outlook.
https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/Drought/
If drought occurs in U.S. western states, it will become more apparent in the late summer and fall.
From just four years ago:
https://snowbrains.com/noaa-wettest-year-history-comes-end-northern-california/
Droughts are racist.
A drought in what is truly desert. Now thats inexpected. A fun experience.. fly one of your socal friends into the appalachains. Mine literally pulled off the road and got out, having never seen so much green. I suppose you could drop them in the rolling hills of KY if they are scared of appalachain banjo music. :)
We had only one significant snowfall all winter in southern NJ. Northern NJ got hit a bit harder. It’s raining today and it rained most of last night. It’s been a dry winter overall.
Here in northern Alberta it’s barely been freezing at night, then hits 57 during the day. I’ll take it.
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