Posted on 06/12/2021 10:23:32 AM PDT by blam
Readers know by now that the Western US is facing one of the most severe droughts in years. We’ve documented (read here & here) this spring of a “megadrought” sweeping across states like California and Nevada as risks of a second Dust Bowl increase by the day.
But in this note, let’s dive deeper into the drought and how it’s impacting farmers and the potential consequences it could have on crops. Meteorologists at BAMWX have published data on surface soil moisture over 20 years. Surface soil moisture is the water that is in the upper 4 inches and available for various types of plants. They found that the 2021 moisture deficit for early June is the worst it has ever been in two decades.
BAMWX’s Vince Bryan says the moisture deficit in the soil is “a concern” as it may impact plant development. Soil moisture plays a crucial role in agricultural monitoring, drought and flood forecasting, forest fire prediction, and water supply management.
Soil moisture observations can alert of impending drought, such as what’s been underway in the Western US this year.
What this means is that soil moisture deficits can dry crops and make them more vulnerable to pests. Even short-term drought can cause damage to crops, mainly during critical stages of crop development, such as after planting or during flowering.
If the drought persists, crop yields could come underestimates this year and result in elevated agricultural prices.
I live in the SW corner of Wisconsin and we are in a Moderate Drought.
We got 1” of rain in an hour yesterday, along with some hail and damaging winds, but I’ll take some drought (we have a 300’ deep water well) over a Spring filled with Tornadoes!
2012 was the worst drought I’ve been through in my adult life. We had nearly 20% of our state in ‘D3’ level drought. I managed a garden center at the time. It was not fun. For anyone!
https://www.drought.gov/states/wisconsin/county/iowa
This site will pinpoint drought conditions down to your County level:
https://www.drought.gov/current-conditions
BS.
Graphic shows my county in Ohio as being in severe drought.
Wettest drought I’ve ever seen on my 76 years on this planet!
Good for you. I feel the same...I never throw anything away.
I have friends in TX and LA - both have been talking/whining/kvetching about rain for weeks on end, now.
In a perfect world, we would all get an inch of rain every week, and it would fall gently while we sleep, say 10 pm to 2am Saturday night into Sunday. ;)
I like your rain idea, twice a week though. (It's hotter here)
I know who to call when another canning jar crisis hits, LOL!
Meant to share that I was at Farm & Fleet last week and they had a FOUR PALLET DEEP display of various canning jars, lids & supplies. And this was my ‘little’ Farm & Fleet; not a mega-store like they have in some towns.
So, looks like production caught up with demand - and then some!
Also - my Walmart Garden Center is PACKED to the brim with really nice vegetable plants - just about anything you’d want. It’s getting late in our planting season, so I wonder if they over-bought based on shortages from last year, or did people caught up in the ‘Covid - We’re All Gonna Die’ panic have disastrous gardening results last year (or saw how much WORK it is to produce/preserve food!) and this year they said, ‘Meh!’ ?
Seed racks are also still full of just about anything you’d need, and on-line seed shops are having SALES and CLEARANCES - something I didn’t see at all last growing season.
Craziness, all the way around.
BS; I have a farm, this is not happening. IMHO this is hyped to make some people a lot of money in sales of prepper supplies. That in itself is not a bad thing but selling fear to make sales is snake oil territory.
FWIW, my farm has been in drought for 15 out of the past 20 years. Today it is in a blue area of this map. Weather patterns are always changing and humans adapt.
The Colorado River is screwed. The Colorado River basin gets most of its flow from the western half of Colorado, the eastern half of Utah and south western quarter of Wyoming. All are in the severest dry category. Rio Grande River in New Mexico is also radically impacted.
With this these rivers being impacted to such a degree, the US”s most productive farmland is screwed. These irrigated lands consist of the Central Valley and Imperial Valley in California, the Mesilla Valley in New Mexico and the Rio Grande Valley in Texas. Prime land often at 3 crops per year, largely vegetables. I recall one large farm in the Mesilla Valley that I got a kick out of. Something towards 1000 acres of pecan trees, in between the trees grew Giza cotton and turkeys running loose to pick bugs off the cotton. Gold mine of a farm.
As for eastern Washington state, they forgot to factor in that it is heavily irrigated and this padt winter snowpack was normal.
Down here, we grow satsumas between the pecan trees.
Drought-hit California scales up plan to truck salmon to ocean
They are trucking salmon to the sea!
I read a very good book back in the 80s called Cadillac Desert, that pointed out that pretty much everything West of the 100th Parallel (mid Texas north to mid North Dakota) is a desert. Not everywhere, just almost everywhere.
Not all that surprising that it’s all in a drought.
The inland, central valley of CA, from Bakersfield to Red Bluff.
The most productive farmland in the world.
Thank you.
The annual weather cycle in the west changes quickly.
This month’s rains have taken our area of TX out of a drought. That will likely change come August.
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