LAT: Northwest's Winter Drought Sets Stage for Long Summer

[DeepModem Mom]

Northwest's Winter Drought Sets Stage for Long Summer
By Sam Howe Verhovek, Times Staff Writer


....Although Southern California has struggled with a deadly deluge of rain and mud this winter, much of the Pacific Northwest is experiencing the opposite — a stunning lack of precipitation — which prompted Washington Gov. Christine O. Gregoire to declare a statewide drought emergency Thursday....

***

...there is an ominous dearth of snow in (the Cascade and Olympic) mountains — 20% of the average for this time of year in some places — and officials warn of serious consequences. These include a higher risk of summer wildfires, river flows inadequate to protect salmon, major cutbacks in water allotments for farmers and higher electricity rates across the West.

If the severe shortage of precipitation continues into the summer, it could also ramp up the danger of blackouts in California, which depends on hydropower-generated electricity from the Northwest to meet the peak demand in those months....

***

The drought is taking its toll on Washington, Oregon, Idaho and parts of Montana....If the drought stretches through the summer, farmers probably will demand water from reserve areas that environmental officials will argue must be conserved to ensure healthy salmon runs along many of the Northwest's big rivers....


http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-drought13mar13,0,1297238.story?coll=la-home-nation

[bahrbearian]

1. Washington Gov. Christine O. Gregoire is funny

she wants us to take pride in driving a dirty car ( I'm way ahead of that) have brown yard and brush every other tooth.

[havocmom]

2. We need our National Guard personnel home NOW They will need rest.

Seems likely they will be busy come fire season.

There is something very wrong with sending the people charged with protecting 'home' to invade and occupy a country which was no threat to anybody. The junta is real big on talking 'Homeland Security' and real big at subverting it all at the same time. The only security the neocons are protecting is corporate financial security and their own hides. They put more and more restrictions on liberty in the US, send first responders to far away places and laugh all the way to the bank.

The west is a tinder box and it is only March. There are cracks in the earth and some rivers are not flowing. There are empty reservoirs. Trees are weak from drought so many are dying from beetle infestations. They will explode in flames when lightening hits. The forests are in serious trouble. And there are a lot of rich folks who have built fancy trophy homes along side national forests. Somebody remind them they are on their own this summer so they had best get to clearing some brush and getting rid of dead trees.

The Guard won't be risking their lives to save posh-rustic vacation hide-aways. The Guard is busy trying to stay alive in Iraq because of lying bastards. Somebody, break the news to the folks who think they are rich that they just aren't rich enough to matter to the neocons.

The west is in serious trouble and the rest of the nation will see smoke all summer, I fear.

[NMDemDist2]

3. my in laws farm in eastern WA & western Idaho

they are very worried

the winter wheat "should" be OK but the spring wheat and lentils need some rain, badly

[Moderator]

4. kick to combine

[mordarlar]

5. Northwest's Winter Drought Sets Stage for Long Summer

By Sam Howe Verhovek, Times Staff Writer

SEATTLE — In this winter of disturbing weather across the Pacific Northwest, Ken Hasbrouck looked toward the Cascade Mountains the other day and saw more bad news on the horizon: another brilliant, sunny, clear blue sky.<<<

>>>In some ways, winter has been an unexpected delight here — the weather has been fine for sun worship, boating, backyard grilling and other activities generally associated with a Northwest summer. Views of both the Cascade and Olympic mountain ranges have often been spectacular.

Yet there is an ominous dearth of snow in those same mountains — 20% of the average for this time of year in some places — and officials warn of serious consequences. These include a higher risk of summer wildfires, river flows inadequate to protect salmon, major cutbacks in water allotments for farmers and higher electricity rates across the West.

If the severe shortage of precipitation continues into the summer, it could also ramp up the danger of blackouts in California, which depends on hydropower-generated electricity from the Northwest to meet the peak demand in those months.<<<

>>>Spokane, with four-hundredths of an inch of precipitation last month, had the driest February since it began record-keeping in 1881. Seattle had its third-driest February on record, with 1.2 inches of rain — which is 2 inches below average. Portland, with 1.3 inches of its average 4.18 inch rainfall, had its fourth-driest.<<<<

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-drought13mar13,0,1297238.story?coll=la-home-headlines



Drought grips Montana
By MICHAEL JAMISON of the Missoulian

>>>Last month, high temperatures in Kalispell averaged about 42 degrees, making it the warmest February on record.

Precipitation was just 0.03 inches, making it the driest February on record. Driest in Eureka and Sula, too.

Snowpack in the Flathead is at a record low, the melt about two months ahead of schedule. At Many Glacier, where the lowest snow depth ever measured in late February was about 8 inches, a scant 3 inches cover the ground.

It's been five full months since either Missoula or Kalispell saw average precipitation, creating what Roy Kaiser has called a "potentially serious problem."<<<

http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2005/03/13/news/local/znews01.txt



>>>SE Asia sounds alarm over worst drought in decades



March 14, 2005


One of the worst droughts in years in Southeast Asia has raised concerns over crop losses in the region, prompting an emergency meeting in Thailand and a call for help from Cambodia.

Ten areas in the northern Thai province of Chiang Mai were declared disaster zones Friday so they could seek emergency assistance to alleviate the hardships of farmers and fishermen.

Vietnam's eight Central Highlands provinces are suffering their worst drought in 28 years, affecting about one million people and causing an estimated 1.3 trillion dong (HK$641.53 million) worth of crop losses.<<<

http://www.thestandard.com.hk/stdn/std/World/GC14Wd04.html

Worldwide droughts, flu pandemics, tsunamis, hurricanes, threatened wars, rising water levels, increasing number of earthquakes...It looking pretty bad.

[merwin]

6. Some of the ski areas have closed for the season. It felt like summer

here in the last couple days. It's really screwed up.

[illflem]

7. I often wonder if things are really getting worse

or if the news of it is just more widely available.

[merwin]

8. Weather swings occur every so often. It's just more publicized

now. I suppose a graph of the daily/weekly weather for the last 200 years would probably make the point though.