Drought
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The latest Drought Monitor was released this morning and shows that the extreme drought in southern Florida decreased in area due to recent rain. However, North Carolina developed an area of severe drought and is undergoing water restrictions in some places. Abnormally dry conditions also expanded to cover most of South Carolina. You can read…
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California is not the only place on earth currently experiencing drought conditions. This recent post on the Weather Underground blog describes some of the droughts that are occurring in other countries: https://www.wunderground.com/news/california-historic-drought-world-brazil-africa-korea?cm_ven=FB_NEWS_AS_072815_3. Market analysts look at these droughts to help predict future prices of commodities like soybeans that can affect prices for farmers in the…
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The latest NWS 30-day precipitation maps from https://water.weather.gov/precip show how wet California has been this year compared to normal. The two maps below show the departure from normal and the percent of normal since June 26, 2015. While the Southeast has been slightly below normal during that time period, California has received 1-2 inches of…
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Wildfire season in the Pacific Northwest has entered its high season, and is expected to be worse than usual due to the continuing drought conditions in the region. Here are a few stories about the current season and the terrifying season that Alaska is experiencing this year. Cliff Mass of the University of Washington posted…
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Each week on Thursday morning the National Drought Monitor is updated to reflect the latest drought conditions across the US. You can find a comparison from one week to the next at https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/MapsAndData/WeeklyComparison.aspx. But do you know what the different drought categories mean? The CoCoRaHS group has put together a neat animated YouTube video which explains…
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The Association of American Geographers (AAG) recently posted an article about the future of California’s drought. They point out that even after multiple dry years, the rains will come back, and if El Nino is as strong as forecast this coming winter, they will return with a vengeance. The writer describes the situation this way:…
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The Beyond the Data blog from the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI, formerly NCDC) has another excellent entry this week. Jake Crouch describes the evolution of the four-year Texas drought from start to finish. You can read the story at https://www.climate.gov/news-features/blogs/beyond-data/reflections-really-big-drought. The article concludes by stressing the importance of collecting quality data for monitoring climate.