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-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Jane Sherry
Sent: Sunday, July 21, 2002 5:50 AM
To: Bdnow
Subject: FW: [globalnews] Drought Parches One Third of the Nation
Environmental News Service
AmeriScan: July 19, 2002
* * *
Drought Parches One Third of the Nation
WASHINGTON, DC, July 19, 2002 (ENS) - By the end of June, 36 percent of the contiguous United States was in severe to extreme drought, according to the National Climatic Data Center.
Above normal temperatures and drier than normal conditions led to a worsening drought situation across more than one third of the United States last month, based on a common measure of drought severity, the Palmer Drought Index.
The average temperature for the contiguous United States was 71.6 Fahrenheit (22.0 C) in June, 2.3 F greater than the 1895-2001 long term mean for the month, making it the fifth warmest June on record. Colorado and Nebraska had their second warmest June since statewide records began in 1895, while New Mexico and Nevada had their fifth warmest June.
The above average warmth coincided with dry conditions in many areas. Fourteen states from the West Coast to the mid-Atlantic had below average precipitation totals and four states - Arizona, Utah, Wyoming and Nebraska - were much drier than average.
In the East, drought conditions were most severe in an area stretching from central Virginia to central Georgia. The past 12 months were the driest July through June on record for North Carolina and South Carolina, and drought has affected parts of the region for much of the past four years.
Severe to extreme drought continued throughout large parts of the western United States from Arizona to Montana, affecting farming and the risk of wildfires. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, more than 80 percent of range and pastures were classified as poor to very poor in New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado in early July, with conditions worsening during June and early July in California, Wyoming, Nebraska and the Dakotas.
The drought, combined with last winter's mild weather, has boosted populations of grasshoppers and Mormon crickets, which are now devouring crops and rangelands across the West, the "Associated Press" reports. In some areas, between 50 and 200 grasshoppers can be found in every square yard of cropland - or about one million grasshoppers per acre.
Wildfires are also causing problems for western residents. By the end of June 2002, almost 2.8 million acres had burned in the United States, much of it in the west, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. This acreage is almost twice the total burned during the same period in 2000, one of the worst wildfire seasons in the past 50 years.
In 2000, severe to extreme drought affected 19 percent of the nation at the end of June compared with 36 percent affected in 2002. In the Dust Bowl year of 1934, July saw severe to extreme drought covering 63 percent of the contiguous United States.
Near average temperatures covered much of the south and northeast, and Maine and New Hampshire had cooler than average temperatures for the month.
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