Central U.S Summer Drought 2012 (rainfall, storms, inches, normal)

[redwolf fan]

soil type/texture makes a huge difference on farm crops coping ,also.

Our farm I grew up on was located along a creek, was rock free, and had a black sand soil.

One week of 90+ degrees in August and the corn really deteriorated.

All the neighbors on higher ground ( non-riverbottom black soil with some rocks ) had no noticeable effect on their corn

Fine textured (black ground) can tolerate dry spells better than coarse textured ( sand ) soil.

[Patricius Maximus]

Originally Posted by redwolf fan

I have raked 3 huge bags of fallen leaves from a very small area of my back yard.

When that happens, I know we ( north Arkansas) are in a severe drought as I never had raked leaves in mid July before.

Are they shriveled and dried up or do they look truly autumnal? Every single year since 2010 I've seen extreme early onsets of leaf turning, and they weren't drought-stressed (perhaps a little dry, but not shriveled and brown; they were still red, orange, and yellow colored). In 2010 I saw a little autumn color in July, and in 2011 and 2012 I've seen autumn color just a month after they put out their leaves, with some trees turning and dropping leaves in the middle of Spring. This occurred in a variety of moisture conditions, and I believe it's a natural sign that has something to do with the climate change I've been telling everyone about here, but that's another topic entirely.

I've seen reports of this phenomenon elsewhere over these years, and I'd like to know if you can be added to the list. If your leaves are true autumn leaves, then that's the first I've heard of July raking or raking being needed, aside from 2010 in Brooklyn when all the trees in one park turned bare in the middle of summer (it's a park, so they weren't raked). If it's a drought-stress phenomenon, it's a bit less weird but still exceptional.

Were you in a worse drought in 2011? If so it would be even odder if that didn't happen before. Then again, the drought monitor isn't a perfect indicator. I've seen weather forum reports out of Tennessee where many parts of that state have been flooded by recent heavy rain, their soil is mudded and waterlogged, and for some bizarre reason the drought monitor still has them in a severe drought. This isn't the easy-runoff type of rain; it was a rather steady rain for days, so it should have made a pretty big dent. In any case it seems like that people almost have to be driving boats down streets before the drought monitor clears them (yes, I know there are areas with genuine problems, but a lot of this is overkill).

[nei]

Originally Posted by Patricius Maximus

The 55% they have now is chump change compared to the 80% during the Dust Bowl. I had no idea that drought was that widespread.

Jeff Master's compares this drought to the 30s:

Dr. Jeff Masters' WunderBlog : Historic 2012 U.S. drought: 6th greatest on record | Weather Underground

None in Massachusetts yet, but we're on the edge again. Grass has turned brown.

[Cambium]

Originally Posted by nei

None in Massachusetts yet, but we're on the edge again. Grass has turned brown.

Not to go too off topic here. My grass was turning brown too. I Had .04" for the month but now 3.10 after Sundays bomb. I got caught in monsoonal rains Sunday. It's amazing how fast roads and homes flood when that much comes down so fast.

It all evens out in the end but its the now that's tough to deal with especially when crops are affected.


What are the farmers doing.out there?? Are they dropping water from planes yet??

[argot]

Some farmers in southern Wisconsin are actually cutting their losses with whatever corn they have and trying to get a late start on soybeans instead. If the fall is anywhere as warm as spring was, it should work, but it still seems way risky.

[nei]

[Cambium]

I'm growing a hate more and more for those maps. Only because my location has 28 inches of rain for the year (confirmed with 3 seperate rain gauges each time) and yet its showing 20% below normal on the map.

The reason it shows that is because BDR(the only reporting office close by) in that location has 19.27" for the year.

Reason for the difference were local embedded downpours I got caught in and not them and the spotty showers too.

But if we dont have those maps to look at we'll never get an idea at whats happening. Im on the fence right now but growing a hate. For precip only. Temps are somewhat better but precip can be spotty.

I'm above normal precip and 20 minutes away is below normal for the year.

[Patricius Maximus]

The Northeast looks good overall. A tad less rain than normal won't hurt anything. Notice that just about everywhere has >70% of normal precipitation.

[nei]

Originally Posted by Patricius Maximus

The Northeast looks good overall. A tad less rain than normal won't hurt anything. Notice that just about everywhere has >70% of normal precipitation.

Meh. Grass out in the sun has turned brown. Seems a bit on edge. Delaware is at its driest on record.

Curious how bad other parts of the country are on the same scale.

[Patricius Maximus]

Originally Posted by nei

Meh. Grass out in the sun has turned brown. Seems a bit on edge. Delaware is at its driest on record.

Delaware is the driest on record with 65-70% of normal precip? Those East Coast states are even less used to weather variations than I thought. I didn't think it was too far off from normal .