Drought

  • Like many ecological disasters, there is not a single cause of the disaster. I was intrigued and saddened to read this story about the loss of many livestock in Mongolia due to a combination of extreme and more frequent drought and heavy winter snows coupled with overgrazing. The combination leaves little available food to get…

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  • The latest Drought Monitor, released this morning, shows just slight changes in drought this week. Generally, the northern and western areas saw small decreases while Georgia and Florida shows small increases. Puerto Rico was the same as last week. Good rain in the next week is expected in the next week and is likely to…

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  • Climate.org has taken a look at the climate conditions that helped lead up to the fires in Colorado a week or so ago. The area started unusually wet, which allowed the grass to grow lush and tall. Then a drought came and that region of Colorado ended up in extreme drought. It did not take…

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  • A good amount of rain fell in the Carolinas and Virginia this past week. This resulted in a significant decrease in dry conditions, including a big decrease in severe (D2) drought. Most of the abnormally dry (D0) conditions were removed from Georgia. Very small increases in moderate (D1) drought were seen in Alabama and a…

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  • The latest Drought Monitor, released late last week, show a slight increase in abnormally dry conditions across parts of the region, especially in Georgia. Only small changes in drought conditions were seen. The rain this week should improve conditions in the Carolinas but may not be enough to significantly decrease the dry conditions in other…

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  • The USDA has a website called Farmers.gov that I have not visited before. It has a lot of very useful information for farmers, including links to programs for disaster relief, crop insurance, and planning for natural disasters. This week’s blog post is a guide to drought programs that you might find useful the next time…

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  • California is the primary source for a lot of the country’s agricultural production, especially nuts and vegetables. But the amount of water available from surface sources is nowhere enough to maintain production, so farmers have been pumping more and more water out of the aquifers to get what they need for their crops. However, as…

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