Drought and Warmer Weather Persist in Much of U.S.

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http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=drought-warmer-weather-persist-in-m

(Reuters) - Weird weather kept vexing large swathes of the United States over the last week, with unseasonably warm and dry conditions melting northern snows and spreading drought through the southwest, even as heavy rains soaked parched pastures in Texas and Oklahoma, according to climate experts.

Unseasonably warm temperatures were noted in Kansas and across many areas of the central Plains, with Kansas recording temperatures well above 60 degrees Fahrenheit this week.

For January, the state-wide average temperature in Kansas was 35.2 degrees Fahrenheit, 7.9 degrees warmer than the 1981-2010 average, or 6.2 degrees warmer than the 1895-2011 average, making January the 12th warmest January since 1895, according to state climatologist Mary Knapp.

Above-normal temperatures and below-normal precipitation over the past 60-90 days has made drought more intense in some areas of southeastern New Mexico and western Texas, according to the Drought Monitor weekly climatology report issued on Thursday by a consortium of U.S. climate experts.

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1. I am afraid our brief winter rains

are over. No skiing in the Sierras, in May, this year.