A mega-drought is hammering the U.S. In North Dakota, it's worse than the Dust Bowl

[Jilly_in_VA]

Joey and Scott Bailey are sitting in their kitchen trying to figure out how they'll get through these next few months.

"Just your grass hay that we would spend $30 a bale on, people are spending $150 a bale, and they're driving 250 miles to get it," Scott says.

The Baileys own a ranch on the remote prairie about 60 miles south of the U.S.-Canada border, in the heart of what locals boast is the capital of North Dakota cattle country, McHenry County. The county is also one of the most drought-plagued places in the nation, where comparisons are now being drawn to the Dust Bowl.

Ranchers here have been forced to sell off their herds at historic rates and are now worried they won't have enough feed to keep their remaining cows alive this winter. The Baileys sold 20 cows a few months back, because they couldn't afford to keep them fed. It's been so dry that they couldn't grow much of their own hay.

"We didn't have any rain last fall, and we had a super warm winter," Joey says. "When we don't get snow in North Dakota, that hurts us a lot in the spring 'cause we need the snow to make it grow right away in the spring."

https://www.npr.org/2021/10/06/1043371973/a-mega-drought-is-hammering-the-us-in-north-dakota-its-worse-than-the-dust-bowl

[msongs]

1. ND forecast - Widespread rain expected Friday to Saturday night +more next week nt

[NickB79]

5. It would take torrential rains to blunt the drought

Most areas are short 6-12" worth of precipitation.

[PortTack]

2. We can't keep raising cattle on sparse grassland anymore than we can have more humans move

To the deserts of the SW and expect it to work

[Jilly_in_VA]

3. Every time I see stories about ND

I think of the one-sided phone conversation I once heard about 50 years ago. I don't remember anything about it except the one line that has always stuck with me---"You don't go to North Dakota. You're sent there!"

ND has a history of a long line of execrable senators and congresscritters. When I was little, my father had a particular dislike of one of their senators and always referred to him as "That ass Karl Mundt" to the point that I actually thought his real first name was "Thatass"!

[Hortensis]

4. Poor people. So many quiet tragedies.

A couple we know lost their family's farm some years ago now, to climate change and dropping ground water levels, but their struggle to save the farm went on for most of two decades because they didn't know until the end that it wasn't going to be possible. Years of having to make critical decisions without a crystal ball, often running up serious debt. They also gave up their careers to do it, and their knowledge was basically obsolete by the time they were free again.

[roamer65]

6. Life at 500ppm GHG's.

[hatrack]

7. 100F On September 29th In Hazen, ND . . . and that's at only 415 ppm

Link to tweet

About 60 miles south and west from the ranchers described in this article.

[roamer65]

9. Just wait till we see 120F that far north.

It’s coming.

[mcar]

8. We were in Wyoming in early September

in small town near Grand Teton. I was in a western wear store that was going out of business and talked to a local rancher.

He said they'd had no snow the previous winter and if they didn't get any this winter, he'd be done.

As we went through the parks, we saw dry riverbeds and huge lakes down 40-50 feet. It was so sad.

[hunter]

10. Maybe we need something like a reverse Homestead Act.

We could pay ranchers and farmers to restore their lands to a natural state; let there be a great rewilding of wolves and buffalo.

Grandma and grandpa continue to live in their family homes, and then the grankids, who probably don't want to be there anyways, get a cash grant to move on.

Inexpensive beef is not a necessity.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homestead_Acts

[Captain Zero]

11. All summer it has rained some every day in Indiana except for 2 weeks

It's really become unusual to not have some overnight rain almost every night.
Reservoirs full around here.
Everything's Green.
The fall is not cooling off as quickly as usual, though. No gradual cooling.
One night out of the blue I'm expecting the temps around 35, just skip the low 50s and 40s.