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Subscribe to RSSHot weather has devastated agriculture; 30 percent of the corn crop is now in poor, or very poor, condition. NBC's Janet Shamlian reports.
From exploding hay bales to a sprinkler ban in Indianapolis, the Midwest and Plains states continue to be tested by a hot, dry summer.
A drought update Thursday didn't offer much hope either: 61 percent of the contiguous U.S. was listed in drought, up from 56 percent last week, according to the National Weather Service's Drought Monitor.
"Anytime we have a drought maturing in mid-summer, the chances for rapid intensification will be there," Gary McManus, Oklahoma's associate state climatologist, told msnbc.com. "Even normal heat and dry conditions can speed that drought along."
More than 1,000 counties in 26 states were named natural-disaster areas on Thursday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The move gives that designation to any county in severe drought for eight consecutive weeks, speeding up low-cost loan assistance to farmers.
Representing a third of all U.S. counties, it's the largest ever USDA disaster declaration, the Bloomberg news service reported.
Michael Conroy / AP file
A dock extends into a dry cove at Morse Reservoir in Noblesville, Ind., on July 5. The central Indiana reservoir is down 3.5 feet from normal levels.
Besides dried up fields, farmers from Iowa to Oklahoma in recent weeks have reported hay bales catching fire through spontaneous combustion.
Near Salix, Iowa, five fire departments responded to a hay fire on Tuesday that quickly consumed a storage facility, NBC affiliate KTIV reported.
While that can happen any time there's moisture in hay mixed with heat, this summer is particularly dangerous after late spring rains provided the needed moisture in the hay.
"The chance of hay bales spontaneously combusting is higher when we’ve had a lot of rain," Nigel Collinson, director of Agrical, a major insurance adjuster, told Farmers Weekly in June as the hay baling season was in full swing.
NBC's Janet Shamlian reports from Arkansas, where severe drought has turned pasture into "desert," threatening the future of the cattle ranching industry.
In western Oklahoma, where hay bales also recently burst into flames, the threat of brush and grassland fires is greater this year than last because the state enough spring rain to allow vegetation to grow.
"The rains allowed the growth to get up pretty good, so there are a lot of troubles this year," Mike Karlin, assistant chief of the Weatherford Fire Department, told the Associated Press. "That moisture has gone and it's gotten extremely dry out.
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"We're dealing with a situation that's fast approaching what we saw last year," he said, referring to the drought that started in 2010 and left much of the landscape cracked and dry.
In Indiana, water rationing has spread to Indianapolis. Plummeting reservoirs have led to a ban, starting Friday, on watering lawns with sprinklers. Plants, flowers and trees can still be watered with a hose.
Extreme heat in Indianapolis last week was too much for a chocolatier's air conditioning system. It reluctantly closed rather than risk having the inventory melt. WTHR's Emily Longnecker reports.
Fines start at $100, increasing up to $2,500 for repeat offenders.
"If we have some people who are solidly abusing it we're certainly going to make an example," Mayor Greg Ballard told NBC affiliate WTHR-TV.
Indianapolis is going through its longest dry spell in 104 years of records, weather.com noted. Since June 1, just .09 inches of rain have fallen there, when the average is closer to 6 inches.
Nearly a third of Indiana was listed as in "extreme drought" in the latest Drought Monitor, up from 23 percent last week. Nearly all of the rest of the state is seeing either severe or moderate conditions.
In northeast Indiana, rainfall in some parts is 11 inches below normal for the last three months, according to the monitor.
In Indiana and 17 other key corn-growing states, "30 percent of the crop is now in poor or very poor condition, up from 22 percent the previous week," the report stated. "In addition, fully half of the nation’s pastures and ranges are in poor or very poor condition, up from 28 percent in mid-June.
"The hot, dry conditions have also allowed for a dramatic increase in wildfire activity since mid-June," the report noted. "During the past 3 weeks, the year-to-date acreage burned by wildfires increased from 1.1 million to 3.1 million (acres) as of this writing."
Other parts of the Midwest are rationing water as well. In Kansas, the town of Russell this week approved restrictions. So too have many towns in Illinois and Wisconsin.
Rain is forecast for some drought areas over the next week, but overall the outlook remains grim for what's the most widespread drought since 1988.
Warming raised odds of Texas drought last year, study finds
"Unfortunately, parts of the Plains from the Texas Panhandle, Oklahoma and Kansas potentially eastward into Illinois and Indiana may see little significant rainfall over the next 5-7 days," weather.com meteorologist Jon Erdman warned in his drought post.
"Rainfall is the cure," added McManus, "but it is normally in short supply during July and August."
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
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Leave a Comment:
I missed something. What happened in the coffee growing countries? Coffee is $7.00 a pound now.
Probably not the coffee growing countries,more likely the dollar is now worth 11 cents.
Obama can use this as part of his re-election campaign........
"if you vote for me I will make it rain"
Since the liberals think he's god most will believe he can and run down to the polls and vote for him thinking...
"He's going to give us our fair share of the rich mans money and make it rain.. He must be GOD"
Since you have to make up stuff to criticize others for, you must not have much of a real argument.
And what are you arguing about anywa? This is an article about drought, and yet you just have to tell us how much you hate liberals and Obama? Are your emotions really that out of control?
Im not arguing about anything strap....Just trying to help get your hero elected so you can have 4 more years of disappointment
Ah, something else I haven't heard since we were 12.
Here comes the language Nazi.............me.
Hay is BALED, not bailed....that's what you use to get out of jail!
Well, just another area of the country experiencing what my area has for the past few years. We got nearly 2" of rain last night...much needed since our area is still worse off than those they are writing about! I'm in a pocket of EXCEPTIONAL drought!
Welcome to the club!
Somehow, I think the GOP is going to use this as a call for more tax breaks.
Quick! let's give 99 year leases on all of our municipal water supplies to multinational corporations!
You think we're broke now? Wait until our only choice is to buy drinking water from Nestle 32 ounces at a time.
instead of having the farmers grow unusable crops or destroy food to keep the prices high, the farmers should go back to their old ways. a new shiny tractor isn;t going to help. money won;t help. be smart and be sustainable.
Grow unusable crops? Destroy food? Please explain.
It's the Presidents fault he should have signed a rain bill.
12/21/12 The End is Near. We are going to Burn up. The Low Temp for Aug 10, 2012 will be 142 degrees.
Everyone just keep saying "There is no global warming, there is no global warming, there is no global warming."
No Problem, Obama will Buy Some water from China .
why are you taking jabs at Obama? you should just go pray and then god will fix it all for you. and be sure to keep voting retards into office so they can give money to carbon producers instead of green tech and alternative energy.
And put it on his China Card, they just upped his limit to 16 trillion.
(late payment fee is 22% of the round eyed female population)
Don't put wet hay in a barn.........farming 101
If it aint money its is food. There must be a reason for crap ehh ! Something bigger than us all maybe that we haVE NO say over.
"Rainfall is the cure," // The Cure !
I live in Illinois (I know you all feel sorry for me. LOL), anyway I have never seen it this bad. Seems in the past few years everybody was praying for it to stop raining due to flooding and now some in Southern IL have already mowed down their corn. Very sad to see the crops look so bad when they were off to such a great start. I pray for rain every single day and for the farmers. Farming is a "crap shoot" anyway, but the downhill slide affects us all.
As for those bashing President Obama, REALLY, just what does he have to do with the weather. Leave the man alone for one article!!!
Ok ... We blame Bush
looks like a good time to fix the boat and the dock
Dust Bowl ?
No.
well i know for a fact this has nothing to do with global warming. i'm going to go pray now.
(SARC!)
You see here God is trying to tell us something trying to warn us to clean up our act and repent or be scorched in burning heat. That is going to be a nasty easternly wind this summer can't wait . You can't hide from burning heat unless you find a deep cave. Thus we become cavemen again till things cool off over the next 1000 years or so.
I don't find this as a laughing matter. This might be a heart felt lesson that may break your self will.
If only we learned to work with nature as opposed to fighting it; could have used those flood waters.
I have a small farm and we had plenty of rain till the last of may and not another drop till last week, and we are getting plenty right now, but as dry as its been we needs alot, but there has been dry times in the past, just the way it is.
Some of the article is right, some is embellished, some is wrong. Post a serious question if you have one. I farm in the middle of it.
I figure by the end of summer food prices should be sky high. Sounds like with the weather we are getting storing food for long periods of time does not work well either.
For all of you alarmnist, this is not the first drought in the history of the US. The land has suffered seasons like this many times before. Up until this year we were seeing massive flooding. I'm sure the cycle will change in a year or two.
No one knows what it will do in a year or two. We only know that in the long run such events will be more likely.
12/21/2012 has nothing to do with it ! Nothing to alarm us about at all just a food shortage and all hell being letting loose.. Head NORTH --->
if by head north you mean canada, remember canada has a neo con bush type prime minister, who feels the same way about immigration and immigrants as most neo cons. think about it.
Head for Oregon,just spend the first 5 bucks you make on a umbrella.
You'll be alright.
The Grapes of Wrath ! They will turn into a giant dust bowl ! Load up the family into the truck and head west thay are hiring pickers there for this summer. Don't ya need water first before you get good healthcare what good is Obamacare if you die from lack of water ?
hiring pickers only if you are willing to work for wages that you can't survive on.But be serious, this dust bowl there is no'west' to run to like before. Also, there will be no nasty liberal socialist leftist whatever to fight for support and get the programs that helped us get out of the last one. Tax cuts will revive the economy, right? ha ha ha ha. Seriously, don't worry, the large corporations & banking biz will come to the aid of americans. . HA HA HA HA HA HA Ha