Drought tracking by satellite

The satellite can penetrate the Earth’s surface up to 5 centimeters

In that case results depend on soil type. For example soil around Hajós, a fair wine district in Hungary, is loess covered by a foot of sand. I am sure the upper 2 inches can get bone dry pretty fast, while there’s still plenty of moisture below.

Gerry,
UCLA=University of California Los Angeles

So areas that sit on the edges of three or four regional weather patterns and soil types find that the regional weather patterns wobble back and forth. 30 years ago, North Texas was plains desert along with all the wildlife that comes with it: lizards, turtles, tarantulas, scorpions, bats etc. The weather pattern moved slightly and everyone planted green grass yards. The turtles, lizards spiders disappeared. Now it has wobbled back to desert and everyone whines about their yards and not being able to pull in record hay crops.
Cali is diff. The weather pattern wobbles every few years and concrete does not absorb very much. No water left in the soil because the gov has taken it and wastes it on Pelosi’s golf course and her winery.
I write response and disaster plans. I would like to know what they would put in their emergency response plan to a drought that is not already in every state and local plan and how they think their model has any impact….because it doesn’t.

Droughts will be variable with a few light showers. Here are some short-lived droughts in the USA from the past.

Abstract – 2002
Larry Bensona et al
Holocene multidecadal and multicentennial droughts affecting Northern California and Nevada
……….Two high-resolution Holocene-climate records are now available from the Pyramid and Owens lake basins which suggest that the Holocene was characterized by five climatic intervals. TIC and δ18O records from Owens Lake indicate that the first interval in the early Holocene (11,600–10,000 cal yr BP) was characterized by a drying trend that was interrupted by a brief (200 yr) wet oscillation centered at 10,300 cal yr BP. This was followed by a second early-Holocene interval (10,000–8000 cal yr BP) during which relatively wet conditions prevailed. During the early part of the middle Holocene (8000–6500 cal yr BP), high-amplitude oscillations in TIC in Owens Lake and δ18O in Pyramid Lake indicate the presence of shallow lakes in both basins. During the latter part of the middle Holocene (6500–3800 cal yr BP), drought conditions dominated, Owens Lake desiccated, and Lake Tahoe ceased spilling to the Truckee River, causing Pyramid Lake to decline. At the beginning of the late Holocene (∼3000 cal yr BP), Lake Tahoe rose to its sill level and Pyramid Lake increased in volume.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0277-3791(01)00048-8
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Abstract – 1998
2000 Years of Drought Variability in the Central United States
…..Historical documents, tree rings, archaeological remains, lake sediment, and geomorphic data make it clear that the droughts of the twentieth century, including those of the 1930s and 1950s, were eclipsed several times by droughts earlier in the last 2000 years, and as recently as the late sixteenth century. In general, some droughts prior to 1600 appear to be characterized by longer duration (i.e., multidecadal) and greater spatial extent than those of the twentieth century…….
http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/1520-0477(1998)079%3C2693:YODVIT%3E2.0.CO;2
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Abstract – 2011
David W. Stahle et al
Tree-ring data document 16th century megadrought over North America
…….Droughts during the 1750s, 1820s, and 1850s–1860s estimated from tree rings were similar to the 1950s drought in terms of magnitude, persistence, and spatial coverage, but these earlier episodes do not appear to have surpassed the severity or extent of the Dust Bowl drought. However, longer tree-ring reconstructions of PDSI for the United States and precipitation for northwestern Mexico and western Canada indicate that the “megadrought” of the 16th century far exceeded any drought of the 20th century (Figure 1) [also see Wood-house and Overpeck, 1998], and is considered to be the most severe prolonged drought over much of North America for at least the last 500 years [Meko et al., 1995].
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/00EO00076/abstract
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Abstract – 2001
Steven L. Forman et. al.
Temporal and spatial patterns of Holocene dune activity on the Great Plains of North America: megadroughts and climate links
……High Plains showed peak activity sometime between ca. 7 and 5 cal. ka. Loess deposition between ca. 10 and 4 cal. ka also signifies widespread aridity…….. Periods of persistent drought are associated with a La Niña-dominated climate state, with cooling of sea surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific Ocean and later of the tropical Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico that significantly weakens cyclogenesis over central North America. As drought proceeds, reduced soil moisture and vegetation cover would lessen evaporative cooling and increase surface temperatures. These surface changes strengthen the eastward expansion of a high-pressure ridge aloft and shift the jet stream northward, further enhancing continent-wide drought……..
dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0921-8181(00)00092-8

We are still doomed as there were mega-droughts in the US during the Medieval Warm Period too. We must take action now! / sac

Letter To Nature – 2012
Justin Sheffield
Little change in global drought over the past 60 years
…..Here we show that the previously reported increase in global drought is overestimated because the PDSI uses a simplified model of potential evaporation7 that responds only to changes in temperature and thus responds incorrectly to global warming in recent decades. More realistic calculations, based on the underlying physical principles8 that take into account changes in available energy, humidity and wind speed, suggest that there has been little change in drought over the past 60 years……
doi: 10.1038/nature11575