MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... July 13, 2012 July 13, 2012 July 13, 2012 July 13, 2012
More on drought
And be careful how you pronounce that title or I might get offended. Or identified! We know that drought is building in Oklahoma, and in most cases, not as severe as what it was last year. In that respect, we have to be sure to give voice to those who actually are worse off than last year.
On to the point, however, besides the one on top of my head. The drought across much of the rest of the nation has prompted the USDA to declare 1000 counties across 26 states as disaster areas, becoming the "largest" natural disaster declaration in American history.
http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20120713/disaster-fast-track-2012.pdf
The "largest" claim is an artifact of the new rules that allowed for this declaration. Those new rules are detailed in the USDA's press release, found here. Surely the drought of the 1930s, 1950s, and maybe even 1988 would be impressive in scope under these rules.
http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome?contentid=2012/07/0228.xml&contentidonly=true
As you can see from this graphic from the USDA, 78% of the corn grown in the U.S. is within an area experiencing drought.
http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20120713/corn-drought.jpg
Reports from our own neck of the woods in eastern Oklahoma indicate non-irrigated corn is suffering. I would suspect that other areas of the state are also having problems with their crop. Luckily, we made it to harvest before the drought disaster-ified the Oklahoma wheat crop. We are getting reports from both eastern and western Oklahoma of dry farm ponds and cattle producer hauling water, with the possibility of further herd reduction from last year possible.
A telling graphic here, from the USGS' National Inter-Agency Fire Center ... this is a map of the departure from average greenness for the week of July 3-9. portray how green each pixel is compared to its average greenness for the current week of the year based on 1989-2003 data. The color scheme is obvious, green is greener than average, brown is less green than average.
http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20120713/greenness-departure.png
Not really a shock at how that map matches up with the national Drought Monitor map.
http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20120713/drmon0710.gif
So the drought's not as bad as last year for a lot of the state, but for some of our fellow Okies, it's as bad or even worse. Always important to keep that in mind. And for drought in the rest of the country, especially the corn belt, it may seem like somebody else's problem. But again, if you eat, it will soon be your problem as well. Corn prices affect just about everything, from food additives to ethanol to feed for cattle and chickens.
Gary McManus Associate State Climatologist Oklahoma Climatological Survey (405) 325-2253 gmcmanus@mesonet.org
==================================================
The OCS/Mesonet Ticker
https://ticker.mesonet.org/
To subscribe or unsubscribe from the Ticker
or for questions about the Ticker or its content
Phone or Email the Ticker Manager at OCS
Phone: 405-325-2253 Email: ticker@mesonet.org
---------------------------------------------------
-C- Copyright 2024 Oklahoma Climatological Survey
===================================================
|