Expect a multitude of MSM stories to proclaim the drought over in the U.S. Midwest. The NOAA begs to differ. It appears to be persistent from my examination of their drought map. Those in power have a vested interest in convincing you that food and energy prices are not rising. If you have eyes, fill up at a gas station and shop in a grocery store, you know they are lying. It’s not over. It’s not over until we decide it is.
| Discussion for the Seasonal Drought Outlook |
| Tools used in the U.S. Drought Outlook (USDO) included the official CPC temperature and precipitation outlooks for March 2013 and March through May 2013 (released Feb. 21), various short- and medium-range forecasts and models such as the 5-day and experimental 7-day HPC precipitation totals (released Feb. 20), 6-10 day and 8-14 day forecasts (released Feb. 20), the NAEFS precipitation outlooks, the soil moisture toolsbased on the Constructed Analog on Soil (CAS) moisture, dynamical models (CFSv2, NMME, and IMME), the 384-hour total precipitation forecasts from several runs of the GFS, the four-month Palmer drought termination and amelioration probabilities, climatology, and initial conditions. We are currently in ENSO Neutral conditions as of this forecast release date.Across the interior Southeast, north of the Florida Peninsula, heavy to excessive rains are expected during late February, with 3 to 7 inches forecast in a stripe across the Louisiana Bayou, the western Florida Panhandle, southern Mississippi, southern and eastern Alabama, and interior Georgia. The March and March – May 2013 precipitation outlooks favor below normal precipitation in this same area, but drought improvement is forecast because of the magnitude of the rainfall expected in the near-term, and because relative confidence in the long-term outlooks is inherently much lower. Still, marked dryness during the last half of the period could more than counteract any benefit from the late February rains, and this seems quite possible (though not likely) in light of the dry 3-month precipitation outlook. Forecast confidence in the interior Southeast is moderate. </FONT< p>Farther south, the heaviest rains should miss the Florida Peninsula, although its northern reaches should pick up 1 or 2 inches. The one- and three-month precipitation outlooks favor below-median precipitation as they do farther north, but with higher probabilities. Shorter-term, there are enhanced chances for above-median rainfall in late February and early March across the Peninsula, but this is a dry time of year there. February monthly normals generally range from 2 to 4 inches, except lower near and across the Keys. Therefore, 1-week rainfall totals need not be particularly heavy to be above-normal, and the below-normal forecast for the upcoming 3-month period – when only 15 to 20 percent of annual rainfall is recorded under normal circumstances – implies continued surface moisture depletion. All these factors imply that the ongoing short-term drought will persist and expand through the end of May, and drought is anticipated along the entire Peninsula by then. Forecast confidence along the Florida Peninsula is high. </FONT< p> Drought is expected to improve at least somewhat across the northern half of the Mississippi Valley and the western Great Lakes region. Specifically, some improvement is forecast across most of Missouri and the central and western sections of Iowa and Minnesota, with more marked improvement anticipated farther east. Moderate precipitation is forecast for the last week of February in areas south and east of central Minnesota, with amounts topping out between 1.0 and 1.5 inches in central Missouri. Odds favor a dry start to March in the 8 to 14 day outlook, but the monthly outlook indicates enhanced chances for March as a whole to be wetter than normal. The 3-month precipitation outlook favors above-median precipitation for most of the region, except along the western tier. Only some improvement was forecast in this area where the 3-month outlook did not favor surplus rainfall, with more robust improvement depicted where there was a tilt of the odds toward wetness in the three month outlook. Drought is expected to persist and expand across the Plains, Rockies, Intermountain West, and Far West. This includes the broad area of extreme to exceptional drought in the middle of the country. The only exceptions are the eastern Dakotas and along the northern tier of the drought region, where limited improvement is forecast. But the vast majority of the large area of drought in the central and western states can expect conditions to persist, with no lasting, tangible improvement anticipated at least through the end of May. In fact, drought is expected to expand, covering most areas not currently in drought along the southern tier of the country from central Texas through southwestern California. In addition, drought is expected to expand significantly across central and northern California and adjacent Oregon. This forecast was motivated by a markedly dry February and forecasts for continued below-median precipitation on time scales ranging from 5 days to 3 months. In central and northern California, the 3-month precipitation outlook for March – May 2013 calls for significantly enhanced chances (over 50 percent) that spring precipitation totals will rank among the lower one-third of historic occurrences. Heavy snow is falling on much of the central Plains Feb. 21 – 22, 2013, including part of the extreme to exceptional drought area. Every bit of moisture helps, but liquid-equivalent precipitation totals are not expected to be particularly large – generally 0.5 to 1.5 inches from northernmost Texas northward through Nebraska – and it comes at the end of a winter with markedly below-normal snowfall. For example, Norfolk, NE, Sioux Falls, SD and Sioux City, IA all received 10 to 13 inches less snowfall than normal this season through Feb. 19 (35 to 65 percent of normal). After this system exits, another could bring moderate precipitation to the southern Plains and southeastern Rockies during the first week of March. Otherwise, drier than normal weather is expected to prevail across the central and western states during late February and early March. In addition, the March and March – May 2013 precipitation outlooks favor below-median precipitation roughly from the western half of the central and southern Plains westward through most of the Rockies, Intermountain West, Southwest, and Far West. With dry weather favored for most locations and time periods, and considering the large precipitation deficits accumulated over the last 6 to 24 months, drought persistence (and in some areas expansion) was the only reasonable forecast. Even in the eastern Plains, which lies outside the area with enhanced chances for dryness during March – May, the endurance and/or severity of observed moisture shortages make it unlikely that conditions will improve by late May. Normal precipitation is fairly low until May, leaving little opportunity for wet-season precipitation to affect existing precipitation deficits before the outlook period ends. Thus the persistence forecast reaches eastward through all of Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, southwestern South Dakota, and most of Wyoming. The one significant wild card is May – a wet month with sizeable precipitation normal as mentioned above. Moisture deficits could rise or fall quickly once the month gets underway if May precipitation trends significantly above or below normal. Some improvement was forecast in much of the Dakotas and in some areas near the Montana/Wyoming border for one or more of the following reasons: (1) moisture deficits of shorter duration and/or smaller magnitude than farther south; (2) close to normal precipitation since the start of the water year (Oct. 1, 2012); (3) near-average mountain snowpack; (4) unremarkable Surface Water Supply Index (SWSI); (5) near-normal summer streamflow forecast. All of these factors make it easier to mitigate impacts. Mountain snowpack was only 25 to 50 percent of normal on February 1, 2013 across the drought area in north-central Alaska. Limited improvement is anticipated there over the next 3 months. Finally, drought covers western and (in spots) central sections of the individual Hawaiian Islands from Oahu southeastward through the Big Island. Drought is expected to persist where it exists on the Big Island and Maui, with some improvement anticipated to the north and west across Lanai, Molokai, and Oahu. Forecaster: R. Tinker |
Bostonbob says:
They have so depleted the aquifers and built cities in godforsaken deserts where they should never have been built that the aquifers will never recover. Like any resourse depletion it will take the hockey stick curve of exponents as Martenson illustrates so well. You cannot have the bread basket of the world without a lot of water. It will be far to late to take corrective action once they finally think to take action I don’t care how many 1.6 gallon toilets you sell, every house cannot sustain 2.5 baths or more. This will not end well.
Bob.
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26th February 2013 at 9:59 am
AWD says:
I don’t know about the rest of the country, but in S. Illinois, we’re just about at flood stages. Another rain or two, and we’ll be underwater.
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26th February 2013 at 10:05 am
Thinker says:
Casey Research has a good point about the coming water wars:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-02-25/guest-post-coming-water-wars
Funny, AWD, that you’re wet down there. Lake Michigan is 30 inches low up there, and we’ve only had about 5-6 inches of precipitation all winter. Definitely not enough to make up the difference. You’re lucky you have sufficient water.
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26th February 2013 at 10:10 am
AWD says:
I’m just telling you. I live on a river/strip pit. The water level is almost risen up onto the yard. It’s rained, sleeted, iced, and snowed all winter.
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26th February 2013 at 10:16 am
Eddie says:
Harvesting water is a concept whose time has come. Think Dune, but without the spice trade.
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26th February 2013 at 10:20 am
Bostonbob says:
Here we have a water allocation problem, but with a great deal work we could have enough water. aleast we are not chins, between scacrcity and pollution they have screwed themselves.
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=china%20water%20crisis&source=web&cd=5&cad=rja&ved=0CFEQFjAE&url=http%3A%2F%2Foilprice.com%2FEnergy%2FEnergy-General%2FChina-Heading-Towards-an-Unavoidable-Water-Crisis.html&ei=ZNQsUf7uDZO30QH0l4DIBg&usg=AFQjCNF8jTjV7-pz2CBM6f6FTxjK39FoXA
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=china%20water%20crisis&source=web&cd=6&cad=rja&ved=0CFoQFjAF&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthediplomat.com%2F2013%2F01%2F22%2Fforget-air-pollution-chinas-has-a-water-problem%2F&ei=ZNQsUf7uDZO30QH0l4DIBg&usg=AFQjCNHrY5YT_GLs79CRZYdGXlH-weNz5w
Maybe they should be nice to Russia.
Bob.
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26th February 2013 at 10:34 am
Kill Bill says:
Dallas.
The lakes [actually there is only one natural lake in Texas, the rest are all man made reservoirs] here are still down though we have had pretty good rains.
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26th February 2013 at 11:26 am
Eddie says:
Lake Travis and Lake Buchanan, the two main “storage lakes” of the LCRA Highland lakes are at a combined 41% capacity, which is about as bad as I’ve ever seen it. South and Central Texas are toast.
” actually there is only one natural lake in Texas, the rest are all man made reservoirs ”
I assume that’s Caddo Lake you’re talking about. I think it’s debatable whether you could really call it a natural lake, at least not anymore. It didn’t exist prior to the late 1700′s. It was formed by natural log jams, which might have formed over time due to changes in the Red River basin related to the New Madrid earthquake. The log jams were removed a long time ago, and there was a man-made dam placed in the early 1900′s, which was most recently redone and rebuilt in the 1970′s.
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26th February 2013 at 12:18 pm
Anonymous says:
Here in central Iowa we need roughly 10 inches of rain (read monsoons) in order to be at about normal soil moisture levels. Could be another rough summer if we only get normal rainfll totals.
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26th February 2013 at 6:04 pm
Kill Bill says:
I assume that’s Caddo Lake you’re talking about. I think it’s debatable whether you could really call it a natural lake, -Eddie
Caddo, yes. I was speaking of the ‘natural’ log jam that caused it. 8=]
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26th February 2013 at 7:38 pm