Record Low Rainfall In Southeast Increases Drought Threat

[hatrack]

"Less than two years after recovering from drought, the Southeast is drying out again.

March is usually one of the wettest months in the region. But record-low rainfall this month in parts of Georgia, the Carolinas, Florida, Alabama and Mississippi raises the danger of spring wildfires and threatens crop growth.

Water officials say it's too soon to worry about water shortages or restrictions on lawn-watering and other household uses. This month's dryness has not jeopardized water supplies or wells. Nor have levels in rivers and lakes slipped to the point of bans on boating and water skiing, which happened two summers ago in the fourth year of the region's last drought. Abundant rain last year replenished reservoirs and groundwater.

But it is still quite dry. The flow of dozens of streams in the Southeast has ebbed to as little as one-third of normal. The national "Drought Monitor" map, updated Thursday by federal and state climate agencies, labels most of Georgia and South Carolina and parts of Alabama and North Carolina as "abnormally dry" for the first time since late 2002. (Related: Dought Monitor map, text)"

EDIT

[DenverDem]

1. It's frighteningly dry in Denver.

My mom in East Texas had a soggy spring, however.

Weird stuff. Something ain't right.

[Gildor Inglorion]

2. It's God's punishment for all those states going Republican

just like the hurricanes that kept hitting North Carolina as long as Jesse Helms was their senator. ;)

[strategery blunder]

3. It's really dry in the Southwest too

<http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x6203>

[Jim Warren]

4. Northeast showing signs also

A quick scan of YTD weather records show the New England states plus NY, and PA. at about 50%.

[redqueen]

5. The Pentagon didn't study abrupt weather changes for nothin'

'Abrupt' doesn't really fit, though. A more appropriate adjective is 'catastrophic'.

Think any of the flat-earthers who still deny global warming is a problem are catching on yet? I know the ones in Texas aren't.