Extreme and Exceptional Drought Continues To Blanket Most of Missouri and Kansas

[xmas74]

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/eax/?n=drought

Link to map showing how extreme the drought is. My county is one of the D4 listed, which means exceptional drought. (For those unfamiliar with Missouri Jackson County is also listed as a D4. Jackson County includes Kansas City, for those who need a marker.)

Even with our rain today (and my county already had 2 inches before 4 pm) it's still not enough. My yard has huge cracks running through it and now the streets are flooding. I get the feeling that we are going to have a bad winter.

[PsychGrad]

1. I'm just East of KC...

And we are getting a good and steady drenching. It has been too long, and most of my farmer friends have lost their crops (or doing sileage for corn)... so, it's a bit of a dollar short and a day late... BUT, it IS rain... I literally sat outside today and smiled at it. And, pretty sure I could hear my trees greedily drinking it up!!!!!

[xmas74]

2. How far east?

I'm not quite an hour southeast, in Johnson.

[lastlib]

4. my trees are slurping it in!

Boy, even tho it's really too late, it's nice to see a little precip. Enjoy it while it lasts, may be gone soon. By Monday, I doubt you'll be able to even tell it rained!

[lastlib]

3. check this thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1018185936

I'm not too far from you folks, the Jackson/Lafayette/Johnson County lines are a long stone's throw from me.

[xmas74]

7. And I'm in the Johnson.

It's just too much and we won't recover for a very long time.

[MuseRider]

5. D4 here in Kansas.

We are getting a very light rain, we are on the west edge of Isaac. Today I watched this storm come in, wasn't it something to see? So different than what we get around here. We were under the very edge of the clouds, if I drove a mile West from my farm it was sunny, dry and warm all day.

It is too little too late here. My crop sucked for the second year in a row. The cracks are so wide you can trip walking through the pasture and you can't see the bottoms of them.

We did get 3 inches last weekend though!! It was wonderful Still, our dry hydrant pipe is way above the water, the drain in the dam is well above the water where it goes into the dam. The top is about 3 feet above the surface.

The rain is lovely and looks to continue for a while now. Mostly light but this is just so nice, everything feels nicer.

EDIT to ask if anyone has heard from Madhound? I hope he got a lot of rain!

[xmas74]

8. Looks like he posted just below.

And without even reading his response yet I'd say he received some rain. We're supposed to get a good five inches now and I believe he's slated for somewhere around six.

I wish I could have watched it roll in but I was stuck indoors all day at work. It started sprinkling at about 7:40 this morning, quickly turned into a full rain and hasn't stopped raining since. It's not enough-my front yard is still just as hard as a concrete sidewalk.

[MadHound]

6. Mid Missouri here,

We've got two inches and counting from the remnants of Isaac. It's too little, and far too late to save the crops in this state, but it just might save the trees and other non-crop foliage.

We need a wet fall and a snowy winter in order to recharge the subsoil and the aquifer system in the region. We also need a normal to wet summer next year. If we continue with this drought, a large part of the country is going to turn into the dust bowl.

This year was bad, a disaster, but it can be recovered from. But if this becomes the new normal, then a lot of people, even far from this region, are in a lot of trouble.

[xmas74]

9. I don't even want to think about another Dust Bowl!

That's just too extreme.

Hey-I think it's been a few years since we've had a decent flood. Maybe next summer's the flood year? And we need lots of snow this winter. My town didn't even get a total of a half inch this last winter, though the winter before we were the bulls-eye for that huge storm that came through.

I read that Knob Noster had around two inches by four pm today. That's close enough by to count for me. I know we haven't had a break in the rain since before eight am. We need it but it's too late for the crops.

[MadHound]

10. I'm so glad we're all getting rain,

But the threat of a dust bowl is real. My grass went from green to brown and crunchy, to gray and crumbling away. I've large patches of dirt where the grass is simply gone, at least on top.

Excessive flooding wouldn't be a good think, but a wet fall, winter, spring and summer would be lovely, and we're due. Hopefully the jet stream drops back down this way soon.

[xmas74]

13. Wet would be nice

but I'm always worried about the extremes. I graduated from high school in 1993-I remember that flood all too well. And then we had to have round 2 in 1995.

For some reason I always think of drought then flood coming hand in hand.

[lastlib]

11. Flood would not be good!

Until the grass & foliage recover enough to hold the soil well, too much rain would be disastrous for topsoil! We cannot afford to lose that! Heavy grazing will also be bad dinkum.

Plus side to the rain today, I saw a pair of wild turkeys in our pasture this evening! Haven't seen any since April! (And no deer since June!) Hoping the wildlife make a good recovery--this damn drought has been hard on them!

[MadHound]

12. You're correct about flooding,

But the animals are going to have a hard, hard winter. Acorns and other nuts are pretty much non-existent, at least in my neck of the woods. I'm seriously thinking about setting out feed for our wild friends, they're going to need all the help they can get.

[xmas74]

14. I have seen deer this summer

but not as plentiful as usual.

I hope there will be no floods in the next few years but you know how that goes around here. Our streets are flooding right now, since the ground is too hard to hold the water.

[MuseRider]

15. I am so happy you are getting some rain from this storm.

We only got a little but we had 3.25 inches last weekend so we are doing much better. Today no rain, just partly cloudy with a beautiful breeze.

For us, and for many including you, this is too little too late for this year. Still, when I look outside my harvested pastures are green again. The leaves on the trees are full and standing up. Some are yellow and will drop soon anyway but for now they look happy. The cracks are not quite so deep I hope and we are not getting mouthfuls of dust when the wind blows.

I was waiting to hear that you were getting some needed rain. Glad to hear it. I hope what you get does enough to at least boost the feelings of you and the people around. It is amazing what a drought will do to a person, especially if they make their living farming. Thank goodness I do not, it still hurts financially and emotionally and will continue to hurt as we watch what happens to the wildlife this winter. Hope more rain continues and wishing for a wet, snowy winter (ICK! but we need it).

[LiberalAndProud]

16. Nebraska could use some rain too.

http://www.weather.com/news/drought-platte-river-20120804

Our rivers are running dry.

[xmas74]

21. Similar pictures from around here.

Until yesterday all state parks had burn bans-no campfires, no grills, etc.

It hasn't stopped raining since yesterday morning. It's still raining as I type.

[LiberalAndProud]

26. Burn bans are a good thing.

http://www.northplattebulletin.com/index.asp?show=news&action=readStory&storyID=23668&pageID=24

[xmas74]

27. Living in a college town-

believe me, I know burn bans are a good thing.

At least we had a nice rain before next Saturday. The first home game is next Saturday and by that evening someone will set something on fire.

[Zalatix]

17. Any thoughts on whether this could move the heart of agriculture up into CANADA?

[LiberalAndProud]

18. I think it depends on how long the drought lasts.

Comparison with the great Dust Bowl droughts of the 1930s
An important fact to remember is that the 2012 drought is--so far--only a one-year drought. Recall that 2011 saw record rains that led to unprecedented flooding on the Mississippi, Ohio, and Missouri Rivers. In contrast, the great droughts of the 1950s and 1930s were multi-year droughts. The Dust Bowl drought of the 1930s lasted up to eight years in some places, with the peak years being 1934, 1936, and 1939 - 1940. Once the deep soil dries out, it maintains a memory of past drought years. This makes is easier to have a string of severe drought years. Since the deep soil this summer still maintains the memory of the very wet year of 2011, the 2012 drought will be easier to break than the Dust Bowl droughts of the 1930s were.

In addition, a repeat of the dust storms of the 1930s Dust Bowl is much less likely now, due to improved farming practices. In a 2009 paper titled, Amplification of the North American "Dust Bowl" drought through human-induced land degradation, a team of scientists led by Benjamin Cook of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory explained the situation:

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=2188

[laundry_queen]

19. Some signs it could:

http://www.cbc.ca/m/touch/world/story/2012/08/22/crop-yield-wheat-canola.html


I'm in the prairies and we had a hot, humid and rainy year. Hot and sunny and muggy during the day, rainy at night. Crops look good around here and my mom's garden is insane - tons of tomatoes. Downside - lots of bugs.

[Zalatix]

24. Bugs. Ugh. I hope fireants don't move up where I'm at...

[laundry_queen]

25. Yeah, we're seeing things we haven't seen before.

My neighbour actually stopped me the other day and asked me if I had a problem with giant white spiders...he grew up around here and had never seen them before and was kind of freaked out (and cursing about global warming). I had seen them last year. We both commented that all these weird bugs that had NEVER existed here before were popping up all over the place. My grandparents had a farm in southern Manitoba and the grasshoppers were always huge. We never got grasshoppers here in Alberta and if we did, they were much, much smaller. This year, it's like I'm back at my grandparent's farm. Ticks were also considered to not really exist in this province, and more and more there is evidence that ticks have moved in. And the pine beetle problem is causing all kinds of headaches in the forested areas.

I hope you don't get fireants either, but the way things are going, I'll probably have them here soon.

[xmas74]

22. I don't know.

I don't know if this is actually global warning or if it's the cycle. We'll have a drought then a flood a few years later.

Honest to goodness response-ask again ten years from now. A few more summers of drought and we'll know. Farmer's Almanac is predicting precip for this winter. (Take it as you will.)

http://www.farmersalmanac.com/forum/2012/07/23/new-official-2012-2013-united-states-winter-forecast/

[hatrack]

20. Kansas City here - good steady soaking last night, and into today, but not nearly enough

Great big cracks pretty much everywhere you look. This might perk the grass up, but still not nearly enough.

[xmas74]

23. I'm to the southeast of you

and it still hasn't let up. It started raining before 8 am yesterday and it still hasn't stopped as I'm typing.

Has it done any good? The ground is still hard and the cracks are more than visible. I will say that my freshly mopped kitchen floor is now a muddy mess, if that's any indicator.