Drought

  • Cape Town, in South Africa, is currently experiencing a drought so bad that it is estimated to happen only once every 300 years (or to be more accurate, is experiencing a drought that has a chance of occurring in a given year of 1/300). This is worse than our D4 drought in Oklahoma and nearby…

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  • The latest set of outlook maps for May 2018 and beyond are now available from NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center. They show that May leans towards warmer and wetter than normal for all of the Southeast, with the strongest signal in southern Florida. Warmer than normal conditions are also more likely for the May through July…

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  • The line of storms that moved across the Southeast this past week has put a dent in drought in most parts of the Southeast. Reductions in moderate drought and abnormally dry conditions were seen in every state, and only a few small areas of South Carolina and Florida increased from moderate to severe drought. Very…

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  • If you follow the national Drought Monitor, you know that parts of Oklahoma are currently in D4 Exceptional Drought, the highest classification of drought there is. Because of this, things are tinder-dry, and there have been many wildfires which have affected cattle production in the area. Here is a story and scary video of one…

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  • The USDA Climate Hubs recently published a paper describing the results of a survey of their field agents and how they are dealing with increases in extreme weather and changes in climate over recent decades. You can read more information about the report at https://www.climatehubs.oce.usda.gov/hubs/topic/usda-field-staff-surveys. According to that page, “In order to better support NRCS and…

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  • This week’s Drought Monitor shows a slight decrease in drought conditions in northwest Alabama and in North Carolina as well as a reduction in abnormally dry conditions in Florida. Drought slightly expanded in Georgia, South Carolina and Virginia due to lack of rainfall in those areas. Most of the Southeast should get rain this week,…

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  • Today’s Drought Monitor shows that severe drought has now appeared in southern Florida and has expanded in South Carolina, as well as a significant introduction of moderate drought into that state. As of today, severe drought covers almost 7% of the region, any drought over a quarter of the region, and any dry conditions more…

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