Drought 2012

[Lightning]

Is it just me, or is TWC really over-hyping the drought in the midwest this year? I don't doubt that it's bad, but they comparing it to the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. The worst drought I remember in that part of the country was the one in 1988.

[KevOwensby]

I live in Topeka, KS... I have a crack in my backyard on the outside of my fence that would swallow my yellow labrador. There's massive cracks in the soil everywhere. Nothing is growing. All the grass is wheat colored. I haven't mowed in a month. We barely had any crops this year on our farm just to the north of us. We're being put on voluntary water restrictions and being told that it could go further soon. It's been over 100 degrees for weeks and the entire forecast is nothing but over 100, including 113 Sunday. (One of our local meteorologists said he's been here for 9 years and has never put 100+ on every day for an 8-day forecast since he's been here.) It's mentally and physically exhausting and everyone is starting to get incredibly mad in general due to the heat. It rained the other day for the first time in weeks. It rained .18" and before that we got 1.50" in about half an hour over a 2 mile radius that fell so fast it all ran off. Before that, we haven't had more than a couple hours of rain all spring and summer. There's no chance of rain in the forecast in the next 8 days. I don't think it's being over-hyped when you live in the area it's taking hold, and by the looks and sound of it, it's expanding. Does it compare to the dust bowl days? Not right now, but with the forecast models showing not much, if any, change in the pattern, who knows what it'll be like in a month or two. August is statistically our hottest month. It's not even the end of July yet.

[toxictwister00]

I don't know about as worst as the Dust Bowl, but I have heard the nation as a whole this is the worst drought since the 1950s.

[Lightning]

I live in Topeka, KS... I have a crack in my backyard on the outside of my fence that would swallow my yellow labrador. There's massive cracks in the soil everywhere. Nothing is growing. All the grass is wheat colored. I haven't mowed in a month. We barely had any crops this year on our farm just to the north of us. We're being put on voluntary water restrictions and being told that it could go further soon. It's been over 100 degrees for weeks and the entire forecast is nothing but over 100, including 113 Sunday. (One of our local meteorologists said he's been here for 9 years and has never put 100+ on every day for an 8-day forecast since he's been here.) It's mentally and physically exhausting and everyone is starting to get incredibly mad in general due to the heat. It rained the other day for the first time in weeks. It rained .18" and before that we got 1.50" in about half an hour over a 2 mile radius that fell so fast it all ran off. Before that, we haven't had more than a couple hours of rain all spring and summer. There's no chance of rain in the forecast in the next 8 days. I don't think it's being over-hyped when you live in the area it's taking hold, and by the looks and sound of it, it's expanding. Does it compare to the dust bowl days? Not right now, but with the forecast models showing not much, if any, change in the pattern, who knows what it'll be like in a month or two. August is statistically our hottest month. It's not even the end of July yet.

Sounds very bad where you live.

[TWCToday]

Its called The Weather Channel  It is one of the most significant droughts in some time although the amount of people it affects considering urban vs rural environments is probably less that in past droughts

[Localonthe8s]

Its called The Weather Channel  It is one of the most significant droughts in some time although the amount of people it affects considering urban vs rural environments is probably less that in past droughts

It is. We've had one of the driest summers in South Jersey on record. Besides June's derecho (which didn't even bring substantial rainfall) we've had very few days with rain. So far I can only count 4 or 5 days with rain and with all of those days the rain fell for only a few minutes.

[toxictwister00]

Most of this summer (2012 in general) has been the same here, but July has been VERY wet. I've gotten torrential downpours about every day or every other day for the past few weeks, it's also been very cloudy, foggy and hazy just about every morning for over a week. This might be the first month in who knows how long I'll actually most likely see more than the monthly average in rainfall. Even with that though it's not enough to combat the severe drought were in right now. I hope this rainy pattern continues into August and the end of the year especially if an El Nino does indeed develop and intensify.

[Localonthe8s]

Most of this summer (2012 in general) has been the same here, but July has been VERY wet. I've gotten torrential downpours about every day or every other day for the past few weeks, it's also been very cloudy, foggy and hazy just about every morning for over a week. This might be the first month in who knows how long I'll actually most likely see more than the monthly average in rainfall. Even with that though it's not enough to combat the severe drought were in right now. I hope this rainy pattern continues into August and the end of the year especially if an El Nino does indeed develop and intensify.

Send some over here. I'm sick and tired of the boring sunny days here

[wxmediafan]

Absolutely not. I've never looked outside to a brown yard.  Burn bans left and right.  It's sad, it's real, and it's most certainly not over-hyped.

[Mike M]

With El Niño starting to develop, hopefully we'll start to see some relief in the coming months.. especially come winter time where we typically have wet conditions and often several snowstorms here in the Northeast under this pattern (like in 2002-03 and and 2006-07).

[beanboy89]

We've had a very wet past few days. It's certainly helped out the situation here.

[Lightning]

Send some over here. I'm sick and tired of the boring sunny days here

I know exactly how you feel. When I am getting sick and tired of all the boring dry days, I worry about when thunderstorms are going to come again and it makes me want to know exactly when they will come even more - which is something nobody can tell me. I hate upper level high pressure ridges. 

[Donovan]

Send some over here. I'm sick and tired of the boring sunny days here

I know exactly how you feel. When I am getting sick and tired of all the boring dry days, I worry about when thunderstorms are going to come again and it makes me want to know exactly when they will come even more - which is something nobody can tell me. I hate upper level high pressure ridges. 

I understand completely how both of you feel. 2011 was one of the driest year's I've ever witnessed here in SC. My only advice to you is to wait it out. Earth/Weather will try to balance things out once again and you'll both have your thunderstorms soon. Although, here we had to wait a year and a half for it to happen again on a regular basis. Hope you all get relief much sooner. 

[Star4000 Fan]

It's a give or take.

In Ohio, we have already hit 100F three to five times (depending on the city) this summer.  The last time it did that was 2007.  That was also a drought, but this one seems to be slightly worse than that, but not quite to 1988 yet.

On the flip side, we did get some rain.....but OH are we EVER paying for it with the extra humidity!  We are seeing highs down to the mid 90s, but heat indices have risen to over 105F.  The temperatures used to be closer together when the air was dry.  Humidity is a mess!  I saw Owensboro, Kentucky today had a temperature of 101F, but with a 71F dewpoint, the heat index was 118F!

[Localonthe8s]

Yuck that's too hot. Also expect food prices to rise from this drought in the coming months