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Subscribe to RSSAlthough March saw record warmth, officials say back-to-back La Nina events are also behind the drier than normal conditions. NBC's Anne Thompson reports.
Most of the Southwest as well as parts of California and the Southeast can expect drought conditions to worsen through July, federal forecasters said Thursday.
"Overall, the current Drought Outlook is not optimistic," the National Weather Service said in summarizing its forecast.
Besides affecting farmers and ranchers, drought means a greater risk of wildfires, especially in those areas expecting a warmer than average spring. A rash of brush fires earlier this month up and down the East Coast could be a preview of a long, hot spring and summer.
"May – July is expected to be warmer than normal" in the Southwest and West, the service added in a more detailed report.
"For most of the southwestern and western part of the country, drought is expected to persist in most locations and expand into the central Rockies," it added.
NOAA
"In addition, mountain snowpack, the source of a lot of the region’s moisture, is starting off below normal, and as a result summer streamflows are expected to be abnormally low," forecasters noted.
Arizona and New Mexico, both states in drought, last year saw their worst wildfire seasons on record. Parts of both states should see some improvement along their southern borders, the forecast stated, but most of their areas will see continued or even worsening drought.
Most of California and Nevada, as well as parts of Colorado, Oregon, Texas, Utah and Washington state, are also forecast to see drought persisting or intensifying.
On the East Coast, most of Georgia and South Carolina, as well as parts of Alabama, Delaware and Maryland, are expected to see continued or worse drought conditions.
Florida, on the other hand, was forecast to see improvement across the entire state.
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To paraphrase George Carlin, "Don't worry about the Earth. The Earth will be fine. It'll shake us off like a case of bad fleas. It's the people who are screwed."
As I understand global climate change, if nothing is done to prevent it, sea level will rise at least 200 feet. Much of the coastal land will be permanently flooded at that point. Storms will be more energetic. Some areas will experience intense drought other increased rain fall. There will be an increase in insect populations and disease. Summers will be unpleasantly hot.
On a positive note, the Northwest passage will be free of ice.
This is the new normal for the West and Southwest. The average weather trends for the future (according to computer modeling related to global climate change) is that these areas keep getting warmer and drier as time moves forward. This situation will only get worse, not better.
This is Texass and Assrizona we're talking about these people would rather build a oil pipeline for profit then a water pipeline for life, go figure but I for 1 am not suprised.
Not a Catholic but have to agree with the priest.
Watch the movie: Hitler: "The rise of Evil" 2003; very disturbing, keeping the current administration's political agenda in mind - so many similaries to pre WWII Nazi Germany Third Reich agendas.
FRIGHTENING !!!
WAKE UP AMERICA
Same people who cannot accurately predict the weather next week, somehow I do not really take this all that seriously. good try though making seem like southern California would be in a drought and the map shows the desert parts of the state.
Jump on the band wagon Nut case "Al Gore"......blame it on global warming
I'm from NM, if you don't like the desert then move. Lawns are a waste of water & squander precious resources. Use native plants that can handle drought conditions. NM is sacred land to us, learn to live with her or leave her. I live in the NE now, but miss the desert dearly.
We need to get our government to exploit MAGNETICALLY-DRIVEN ENERGY WHICH IS 100% NON-POLLUTANT, there are three viable patents by Howard Johnson in the US Patent Office! Also, a man who cares about America, NOT about OIL CORPORATES and NOT about ELECTRICAL ENERGY CORPORATIONS capitalistic GREED! His name is TROY REED. He already has a working MAGNETICALLY-DRIVEN 7000 watt AC Motor which is enough power to run all the electricity for one home! He has also been working on a magnetically-driven motor for an automobile! If we can get our government back from the corporates, we might stand a chance to save our planet! It may be too late!
Vote STRAIGHT DEMOCRATIC, the life you save may be your OWN!!!
This brought to you by the same people who brought you global warming in the 90's after the catastrophic ice age of the 80's failed to materialize. How much confidence can you really have in a prediction from a group whose most accurate forecast is a 50% chance of rain. For you non-math majors, that means maybe it will, maybe it won't. You work way too hard for your pay, now don't you.
You might use desalt. plants for some drinking water but it is going to cost you 4 - 5 times more than well or resevoir water. You will not be able to water your plants with it or use it in industry. The Southwest has been drying out since the last ice age. This also includes Northern Mexico. The latter is in its worst drought in history. There is simply no way the U.S. Southwest and Northern Mexico can handle the numbers of people who have moved there and continue to move there. They tend to bring their home type plants with them. Nothing will stop them until a total disaster hits.
There is a body of researchers that believe the whole Climate Change was a hoax, in an effort to create real climate change as in chem trails, and cloud seeding. The idea was to kill off the natural vegetation, in order to introduce chemically altered seeds, which will be government controlled.
Just look up in the sky. Do those clouds look natural to you any longer?
I would provide a link, but most of the authentic research has gone missing from the Internet, and so now if you google chemtrails, you will find the websites that mock these theories, by including ghost stories and urban legends.
Look down. Do those feet really look like yours. There not
Before you mock, here is some research from real scientists. We even have a Senator who is investigating this.
http://www.lightwatcher.com/chemtrails/smoking_gun.html
I would just blow your mind if I told you this is a New World Order effort to control food supply. The Powers that Be, are using the technology and science for total control.
I am not hiding underground with a stock pile of food and water. I am confident that God Almighty will care for His own, and prayerfully, remove us before the real trouble begins. And no, I don't have a special date to give you like the Mayan calendar, or that pastor who said he knew the day of judgement, and then missed it several times. I just see the obvious signs such as a One World Bank and currency coming, after the world wide economic crash. And then I hear rumours of wars, (see, India tests long range ballistic missile to reach Europe and China,) and most telling, a treaty must be signed by Israel and the antichrist, or the One World Leader. It looks like war against Israel will be due to the building of illegal settlements, and the decades of hostilities with their Arab neighbors. After terrible war in the Middle East, people will be ready to sit down and sign a peace treaty. But it won't last.
Am I afraid? Nope, just wish He would come soon, so we can share in His Glory. When He returns earth to its original beauty, we will taste again, fresh water, and pure fruit and vegetables. Our air will be healthy for our lungs. And we won't get sick from the chemicals that they are introducing into our environment. And, we won't war over resources, which by the way, won't just be oil, but actual drinking water. Fresh water is getting so scare, that I can see nations fighting for it. There are rumours that a Texas business man is actually selling water to China. Well I don't know if that is true, but here is an interesting report: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-13/worst-drought-in-more-than-a-century-threatens-texas-oil-natural-gas-boom.html
Maranatha (Come Lord Jesus!)
Pentagon researchers know that extreme climate change and drought conditions are very real and immediate. They have initiated "plan B", the Geoengineering option.
Review Ken Caldeira's comments on Geoengineering available on You Tube and elsewhere. Caldeira, Lowell Wood and "Mr. H-bomb" himself Ed Teller were the original Geoengineers and Terraformers.
Bottom line: It's way too late to reduce carbon dioxide levels to "normal" or pre-industrial.
"Normal's" a setting on my dryer, stuzi.
Turned off the light in my garage after parking my car inside tonight.
Think that's gonna' counter natural change?
Wait 'till Yellowstone blows. You nature flakes will really have something to freak about then!
Check out this video:
http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=chem+trails+in+the+sky&mid=F9E94B63DFD5CC563BCDF9E94B63DFD5CC563BCD&view=detail&FORM=VIRE3
I'm really glad the Republicans told me there is no such thing as global climate change. Otherwise alll this extreme weather would scare me.
How did California become seperate from the Southwest? It's got the southwestern most corner of the continental US!
A. Commentator is right on about chemtrails. Aluminum particles sprayed from aircraft at high altitudes works well for cooling purposes. It's been going on all over North America for years now.
They really scary part of Geoengineering has to do with high energy beams that actually heat the ionoshere and bend the jetstream as desired. Unintended consequences such as earthquakes and tsunamis happen. Yeah - those earthquakes and tsunamis! Ask former Defense Secretary Cohen, he knows.
1. The world is getting warmer now: FACT. There is no doubt about it.
2. There is more CO-2 in the atmosphere than anytime in hundreds of thousands of years: FACT. There is a ton of evidence.
How #2 drives #1: we can only make educated guesses; the climate is a dynamic, complicated system. Isn't it kind of stupid to make like somehow it will all work out fine if we keep doing what we're doing?
ENTP - It's called the Greenhouse Effect. Research and learn the chemistry and physics behind the Greenhouse Effect before making any further comments.
Why doesn't bishop Jerky criticize ISRAEL. Oh I forgot - you CAN'T criticize Isreal or the jews lest you be called a neo-nazi or anti semite!
Let us take stock in what we do have. We do have enough natural gas to export and the gas companies think we have enough water to drill wells and use to fracture rock to release more gas. Meanwhile there are very few water rich countries in the world and America is not one of them. Now take Canada, there is a water rich country for you. Now is that the same Canada that we refused to work with on an oil pipeline? Now what do you think the odds are for the Canadians to say "Hey you jacked us on the pipeline deal but what the heck just run a pipe up here and get some water?
drought??..let me guess..BigOil is gonna raise the price of gas again
I doubt that this forecast will have any effect on the managers of all those desert golf courses that use more water than the 10 largest cities within the same area. Same goes for all those residents who insist on maintaining manucured lawns that belong in the upper midwest or Pacific Northwest. If the folks in these drought areas expect any support and sympathy from the rest of us they better start demonstrating that they themselves are serious about employing solutions to their water shortages.
Whether or not we're experiencing man-made Global Warming, we are experiencing man-allowed overpopulation of the USA. Some parts of the USA, mostly in the South, have been short of fresh water every year for a couple decades. The huge, underground, freshwater lake in the middle of USA, the Ogallala Reservior, was reachable by 40 foot wells in the 1960's. It requires 400+ foot wells now. Some farmers are talking about the possible need to go back to low-production "dry farming." The need for fresh water is going to increase. Consequently, instead of Georgia deciding it's border was drawn wrong and trying to steal a river from Tennessee, it should be funding research on the cheap desalination of water. The rest of the nation should be doing the same thing and the federal government should be looking at integrating water systems.
That is also a plus if manmade Global Warming is real. The USA isn't going to do anything about it because those who want to fill their pockets with cash now and the hell with future generations control what's going to happen. So additional sources of fresh water - plus integrated municipal systems to handle it - need to be researched and built.