From the University of Nebraska-Lincoln comes a news release about the 12 year old U.S. Drought Monitor dataset, proclaiming “record worst ever” as if this has some relevance in history. Sorry, I have to call BS on this. Take June 1934 for example:
Well over half of the USA then was in moderate to severe to extreme drought.NOAA wrote in 2002 describing the summer drought then:
The most extensive national drought coverage during the past 100 years (the period of instrumental record) occurred in July 1934 when 80 percent of the contiguous United States was in moderate to extreme drought.
Compare that to June 2012 where UNL claims 47 percent of the CONUS is experiencing “some level of drought”:
Color me unimpressed with the University of Nebraska’s PR fear mongering which can easily be dispelled in a few seconds of Internet search. Source: NCDC here. Now let’s see how many feckless reporters pick up this UNL press release from Eurekalert and run with it as “worst ever” without bothering to check history.
US Drought Monitor shows record-breaking expanse of drought across US
Nearly 47 percent of nation experiencing some level of drought, officials say
More of the United States is in moderate drought or worse than at any other time in the 12-year history of the U.S. Drought Monitor, officials from the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln said today.
Analysis of the latest drought monitor data revealed that 46.84 percent of the nation’s land area is in various stages of drought, up from 42.8 percent a week ago. Previous records were 45.87 percent in drought on Aug. 26, 2003, and 45.64 percent on Sept. 10, 2002.
Looking only at the 48 contiguous states, 55.96 percent of the country’s land area is in moderate drought or worse – also the highest percentage on record in that regard, officials said. The previous highs had been 54.79 percent on Aug. 26, 2003, and 54.63 percent on Sept. 10, 2002.
“The recent heat and dryness is catching up with us on a national scale,” said Michael J. Hayes, director of the National Drought Mitigation Center at UNL. “Now, we have a larger section of the country in these lesser categories of drought than we’ve previously experienced in the history of the Drought Monitor.”
The monitor uses a ranking system that begins at D0 (abnormal dryness) and moves through D1 (moderate drought), D2 (severe drought), D3 (extreme drought) and D4 (exceptional drought).
Moderate drought’s telltale signs are some damage to crops and pastures, with streams, reservoirs or wells getting low. At the other end of the scale, exceptional drought includes widespread crop and pasture losses, as well as shortages of water in reservoirs, streams and wells, creating water emergencies. So far, just 8.64 percent of the country is in either extreme or exceptional drought.
“During 2002 and 2003, there were several very significant droughts taking place that had a much greater areal coverage of the more severe and extreme drought categories,” Hayes said. “Right now we are seeing pockets of more severe drought, but it is spread out over different parts of the country.
“It’s early in the season, though. The potential development is something we will be watching.”
The U.S. Drought Monitor is a joint endeavor by the National Drought Mitigation Center at UNL, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and drought observers across the country.
To examine the monitor’s current and archived national, regional and state-by-state drought maps and conditions, go to http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu.
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We still need rain. Badly.
[Moderator’s Suggestion: Schedule a car wash, a concert or an outdoor water-color exhibit. -REP]
I think this is the worst in 12 years, according to the press release. They couldn’t wait another 18 years to say something remotely connected to climate, as opposed to weather.
REPLY: Yes, I referred to their 12 year long dataset…which means virtually nothing in the context of the US drought history. The problem is their headline and of course ignoring history without even a caveat. -Anthony
There are other past months/seasons that beat our our present conditions as well. August of 1936, for instance: http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/temp-and-precip/drought/historical-palmers.php?index=pmdi&month%5B%5D=8&beg_year=1936&end_year=1936&submitted=Submit
From this July 3rd…
http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/236159-report-us-should-follow-australias-lead-by-taxing-carbon
Just in…
http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/236357-napolitano-on-weird-weather-and-climate-change-theres-a-pattern-here
Like some religious fanatics seeing a painting of the Virgin Mary cry tears of blood, or a potato in the shape of Jesus, the warmists are exulting in what they see as signs from their ‘god’.
Apparently the new warmist weapon is timebase shortening.
This isn’t the first time they’ve exaggerated a drought. Their funding depends on droughts. “When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.”
Do not look at the sinful maps my children! Shun the deniers!
The phrase “12 year history” is a non-sequitor – there is NO history in a 12 year time period…
The 1974 – 1977 period was pretty bad in a good chunk of the US.
That reminds me of the hoopla over the record number of record temperatures being set. If the current sensors are filled with new sensors, of course we will have a record number of records.
leftinbrooklyn
July 5, 2012 at 5:07 pm
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A spud in the shape of Jesus is at least a curiosity, but one deliberately carved is not even that.
The church of gore worships a clumsily hacked man-made thing that needs constant repair and maintenance.
SteveSadlov
July 5, 2012 at 5:31 pm
The 1974 – 1977 period was pretty bad in a good chunk of the US.
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I think it was in 74; I was riding with my dad, returning from a fishing trip, when it started to rain. The guy on the radio stated that it was the first rain in AZ in 168 days!
I work near Beaufort, SC and routinely travel between there and Charlotte, NC. While the Palmer Drought Severity Index shows this area to be under moderate drought conditions, lake and stream levels are normal and there is no evidence of stressed vegetation anywhere. Rainfall may be slightly lower than average, but I’m at a loss to understand how anyone could call this a drought.
Steve
July 5, 2012 at 4:45 pm
We still need rain. Badly.
[Moderator’s Suggestion: Schedule a car wash, a concert or an outdoor water-color exhibit. -REP]
####
Taking a Cub Scout Troop on a camping trip as only one of two adults always worked for me!
[REPLY: Oh Yeah. Scouting. Just one hour a week. Bwaa-haa-haa-ha! -REP]
Unfortunately, the mental gestalt of ‘warming’ has become part of the unconscious mind, like the idea that Nixon started the Vietnam War, or the idea that Three Mile Island killed lots of Americans.
When a notion goes unconscious, it’s impossible to dislodge it with mere facts. It would take a complete turnaround of the whole propaganda apparatus (by which I mean TV). All TV shows, from drama to comedy to “news”, would have to subtly and casually refer to the correct facts for about 20 years, every millisecond of every day, to undo the damage done by 20 years of universal and subtle references to the lie in all TV shows every millisecond of every day.
Another example of lying while telling the truth.
As always I take great interest in my little outpost in that tiny little strip on the southern east coast of Florida. Interestingly, as one might expect for coming out of La Nina (association not necessarily causation) there has been a lot of rain in Miami and above average rain in West Palm Beach (closer to where I am) Fort Lauderdale has me scratching my head a bit, Naples too (my precip plots for ENSO have wet conditions pretty much everywhere for El Nino, dry for La Nina). This all roughly matches up with the above map for June, when you keep in mind that we have come out of pretty bad moisture deficit from last year.
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/mfl/?n=cliplot
I believe the summer drought of 1930 was worse east of the Mississippi than 1934.
So I’ve been following the drought monitor as well as rainfall based on intellicast.com estimates. Frankly, the drought monitor is not making sense to me. For example, in this week’s totals, which are totaled Tuesday through Monday, includes rains in South West Georgia from tropical storm Debby. Yet, South East Georgia is unchanged from the previous week. That just does not make sense.
The 1930s steadily become cooler. Maybe the 1930s drought will ease too.
If you look at the UNL historical data, it starts at Jan 4, 2000. An interesting variation of the Y2K problem.
For the life of me, i can’t understand why they do this. It simply makes skeptics think Warmists are idiots and the proof of the same is there for all to see.
Left a comment letting them know that their headline is too “tabloid” for a university, and an embarrassment to me as an alumnus. Reminds me why I quit subscribing to the local paper: according to their weather page we’ve been in a perpetual drought for the last 10 years despite 3 consecutive years of full reservoirs. They report the YTD precipitation for a single station, but the “normal” YTD value is for the entire water district, including mountain stations that consistently receive almost double that single station!
Indeed, the worst in history.
I’m betting man’s evil CO2 will squelch the next glacial period too:)