Sunday, August 5, 2012

US Drought Worsens



Drought intensifies in most-parched areas of U.S. Washington Post by Alyssa Botelho and Joel Achenbach Aug 2
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/drought-intensifies-in-most-parched-areas-of-us/2012/08/02/gJQAc334RX_story.html?wpisrc=nl_headlines

[Excerpted] The historic drought of 2012 is intensifying in the most parched areas of the American heartland, roasting much of the corn and soybean crop, scorching the grasslands and pastures essential for cattle grazing, and threatening to send food prices surging in the United States and abroad.

More than a fifth of the contiguous United States rates as being in an “extreme” or “exceptional” drought, according to official statistics released Thursday...

Nearly 40 million acres of corn are baking in drought conditions rated extreme or worse...

Majia here: The article claims this is the worst drought since 1956.

Previously I posted speculation on a possible relationship between this year's drought in the midwest and Fukushima http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2012/07/drought-and-nuclear-testsaccidents.html

 

1 comment:

  1. This site has the percentage of the US that is moderately to extremely dry:

    http://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/cmb/sotc/drought/2012/06/uspctarea-wetdry-mod.txt

    54.6% of the US is moderately to extremely dry, as of June 2012. This is the highest percentage since December 1956, when it was 57.6%.

    You can see increases in the drought percentage within a couple years after 1954 (peak of Bikini Island bomb testing), 1962-1963 (peak of US-Soviet bomb testing), and 1986 (Chernobyl) also.

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