Friday, July 6, 2012
The punishing heat in the Midwest is expanding and intensifying drought conditions and relief isn’t on the horizon for most areas, according to the National Weather Service.
A report on Thursday said:
Drought conditions are present in 56 percent of the continental U.S., according to the weekly Drought Monitor.
That’s the most in the 12 years that the data have been compiled, topping the previous record of 55 percent set on Aug. 26, 2003. It’s also up five percentage points from the previous week.
The drought hasn’t been long enough to rank up there with the 1930s Dust Bowl or a bad stretch in the 1950s, David Miskus, a meteorologist at the weather service’s Climate Prediction Center.
The 1930s Dust Bowl were in part created by prolonged drought, coupled with dry and bare soil conditions. These immense dust storms affected 100,000,000 acres and covered an area stretching from Texas to Oklahoma and adjacent parts of New Mexico, Colorado, and Kansas.
Millions of acres of farmland were destroyed, forcing hundreds of thousands of people to leave their homes.
This summer has been the hottest I remember in Denver. Our altitude usually guarantees pleasant summer temps in the 80′s but this summer, it has frequently reached 100′ and higher. The fires in Colorado Springs’ Waldo Canyon were devastating. I hope this isn’t our “new norm.”
I like the summer but this year, it’s been too hot for me. My electric bill to sun the AC is going to be a real bitch.
Drought means higher produce costs and an over-reliance on foreign imported fruits, vegetables and grains.
Not a good thing for the U.S. economy.
Don’t you deniars let a little draught worry you….. Global warming is just a myth, like Gravity!!!
And, by the way, you ‘fuckers’ thanks an awful lot for helping to ruin my Planet…..
They better not come to Cali. We don’t have an abundance of fruit picking jobs for them this time around.
I always think:
Al Gore was right.
Humans are delicate.
A temperature increase of 5′-to-10′ degrees can wreck havoc on our health and well-being. But we can all take comfort knowing there is no climate change. John Boehner says so.
Very true, Estacada. Humans don’t tolerate wild swings in temperature.