Drought Affecting 1/3 Of United States - Some Wondering If This Is The New Normal

[hatrack]

EDIT

Coast to coast, the drought's effects are as varied as the landscapes:

In Central California, ranchers are selling cattle or trucking them out of state as grazing grass dries up. In Southern California's Antelope Valley, rainfall at just 15 percent of normal erased the spring bloom of California poppies.

In south Florida, Lake Okeechobee fell to a record low of 8.94 feet last week. So much lake bed is dry that 12,000 acres of it caught fire last month.

In Alabama, shallow ponds on commercial catfish farms are dwindling, and more than half the corn and wheat crops are in poor condition.

Dry episodes have become so persistent in the West that some scientists and water managers say drought is the "new normal" there. Reinforcing that notion are global-warming projections warning of more and deeper dry spells in the Southwest, although a report in last week's Science magazine challenges the climate models and suggests there will be more rainfall worldwide later this century.

"Droughts will continue to come and go, but higher temperatures are going to produce more water stress," says Kathy Jacobs, head of the Arizona Water Institute, a research partnership of the state's three universities. That's because warmer temperatures in the Southwest boost demand for water and cause more of it to evaporate from lakes and reservoirs. This drought has been particularly harsh in three regions: the Southwest, the Southeast and northern Minnesota.

EDIT

http://www.thedesertsun.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070608/NEWS09/706080319

[NMDemDist2]

1. i live in the high desert plqins of the SW and we've had the wettest spring

in ages :shrug:

they have removed all water restrictions from the farmers around here

[pipoman]

2. TheCentral Plains are wetter than normal

and temps are cooler than average too.

I have 4 feet more water in my well than in the 5 years since it was drilled. Our reservoirs and lakes are as full as I have seen in many years. All of these things are very welcome.