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Post by parfive on Feb 2, 2018 3:28:31 GMT -5
California and Beyond: The State(s) of The Expanding Drought
As day after sunny day goes by, Californians are having uncomfortable flashbacks to a drought that seemed to be well in the past. One of the driest five-year periods in California history (2011-16) was promptly followed by one of the wettest (2016-17). Many reservoirs are still flush from the hydrologic bounty of last winter, but they could be hurting again later this year. The state is wrapping up one of its driest October-to-January periods on record, and there’s little hope of moisture through at least mid-February.
The situation was brought home Thursday as the California Department of Water Resources carried out its monthly high-profile check on snowpack at the benchmark Phillips Station in the central Sierra Nevada. The survey found snowpack at just 14 percent of the historical average, or just 13.6”.
In the weekly U.S. Drought Monitor valid January 30 and released on Thursday, more than two-thirds (67.10%) of the contiguous U.S. was abnormally dry—the largest fraction in five years. The area covered by severe to exceptional drought more than doubled in January alone. “Mountain snowpack was abysmally low, reaching record low levels for this time of year in parts of New Mexico and Colorado,” the report said.
Texas Moderate to severe drought now covers more than 40 percent of Texas, compared to just 4 percent right after Hurricane Harvey struck. In the Texas Panhandle, Amarillo finished an unprecedented third calendar month in a row without any measurable precipitation at all. The last time Amarillo saw more than a trace of rain or snow was on October 13. The city’s current dry streak—110 days as of Jan. 31—is more than a month longer than anything observed even in the infamous Dust Bowl of the 1930s. The previous record of 75 days occurred in 1957.
New Mexico Albuquerque is in the midst of its driest water year (Oct. 1-present) in records going all the way back to 1892. The city has picked up just 0.07” of moisture, compared to the previous record of 0.20” from 1904. “It seems like ‘driest start to a water year in more than a century of records’ reaches beyond journalistic cherry-picking to a really substantive ‘wow’,” said John Fleck, a longtime water journalist who now directs the Water Resources Program at the University of New Mexico.
Much like California, the water supply in New Mexico is in decent shape for now, according to Fleck, thanks to reservoir storage from a relatively wet 2017 as well as the presence of an aquifer below Albuquerque. “The humans will do fine even in an extreme year like this. But we're very worried about fire season,” he said. “There’s a lot of fine fuel build-up because last year was wet, and the forests right now are so dry.” A large fraction of the state’s piñon pine (the official tree of New Mexico) were lost to drought and bark beetles in the early 2000s. Millions more piñon pine died under similar circumstances in 2013.
Cartoons: www.wunderground.com/cat6/california-and-beyond-states-expanding-drought
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Post by 1dave on Feb 2, 2018 7:55:02 GMT -5
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,466
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Post by Sabre52 on Feb 2, 2018 8:43:44 GMT -5
Yeah, here in Gillespie county, we're under a third of the thirty year rain average so far. Of course winter is our dry period here. Already having to feed the cattle though as we have little grass. Will sell off the steers pretty soon to decrease herd numbers. Saying here in Texas is our weather is long periods of drought followed by brief floods. Not unlike what we had back in Commiefornia...Mel
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