201213 North American drought

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(Redirected from 20122013 North American drought) The 2012-2013 North American Drought is an expansion of the 2010 2012 Southern United States drought which began in the spring of 2012, when the lack of snow in the United States caused very little meltwater to absorb into the soil.[1] The drought includes most of the US, parts of Mexico, and central and Eastern Canada. It currently covers 80% of the contiguous United States with at least abnormally dry (D0) conditions. Out of that 80%, 62% is designated as at least moderate drought (D1) conditions.[2] It is affecting a similarly large area as droughts in the 1930s and 1950s but it has not yet been in place as long.[3] The drought has inflicted, and is expected to continue to inflict, catastrophic economic ramifications for the affected states, so far costing more than $35 billion in the Midwest. As for the whole US, the drought is predicted to reduce the gross domestic product by 0.5-1%, equating to a loss of $75 to $150 billion.[4][5] It has exceeded, in most measures, the 1988-1989 North American drought, the most recent comparable drought, and is on track to exceed that drought as the costliest natural disaster in US history.[6][7] In March 2013, heavy winter rains broke a three-year pattern of drought in much of the Southeastern United States, while drought conditions still plague the Great Plains and other parts of the US, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.[8] Drought is expected to continue in parts of North America through 2013.[9]
Example US Drought Monitor (http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/).

Contents
1 Meteorological background 2 Impacts 2.1 United States 2.2 Canada 3 See also 4 References 5 External links

Meteorological background
See also: Drought in the United States The drought was set in motion when strongly positive Arctic oscillation and North Atlantic oscillation conditions removed winter storms from the US.[10] United States Drought Monitor on January 3 and July 3, 2012. Note When spring arrived, very little snow the massive expansion from the South to most of the US. existed to melt and moisten the ground, and thus very little water to evaporate and create rainfall. The effects of the lack of snow were immediate. Dry conditions could be noticed immediately, and contributed to a weak tornado season in the US.[11] The strongest tornado outbreak of the year, March 2, occurred right as the snow was finishing melting.[12] The drought continued to steadily intensify along with a decline in rainfall which is still ongoing. The Summer 2012 North American heat wave caused further evaporation of groundwater, lakes, reservoirs, and rivers and streams.[13] As moisture has continued to decline, the conditions are becoming self-sustaining (i.e. a lack of rainfall means that less moisture is available to promote additional rainfall, in a vicious cycle).[14] In many areas, the only way for drought conditions to be significantly alleviated in the short-term would be for a discrete, long-lived, and large system (such as a tropical cyclone) to impact the area.[15] Soil hardening A map showing the drought in Eastern Canada. due to the drought means that even if a large amount of rain falls in a short time, most of it will run off quickly causing flash floods rather than drought relief. The June 2012 North American derecho and other strong storms in late June and early July did not appear to ease drought conditions, as the rainwater ran off rapidly from the affected areas. The drought is expected to continue and possibly intensify into the end of November for a large part of the country. Although drought/dry conditions are likely to drop at least one category level in the Southwest, Southeast, Northeast, and Northern Plains as well as portions of the Ohio River Valley, it is expected to have both short-term and long-term impacts across nearly the entire affected area.[2][16]

Impacts
United States
Crops, particularly strains grown in the most heavily affected regions (such as corn and soybeans), have been noted to be failing or yielding very low this year due to the drought's presence in farming areas.[17] This increase in cost will most likely move up the feeding chain and result in raised prices for meat, dairy, and processed food

products.[6] Food prices are expected to rise dramatically because the resulting supply shortfall.[18][19] The price of farm equipment, on the other hand, is expected to decrease as farmers are forced to sell off their equipment and machinery to cope with decreased incomes.[20] Parts of the Mississippi water levels have plummeted, affecting trade and commerce.[21] 1,692 counties across 36 states in the US have been legally declared primary natural disaster areas as of August 17 as the drought continues to cover 62% of the contiguous US.[6][22] Hundreds of additional counties bordering the primary disaster areas are designated as "contiguous" disaster areas, and are also eligible for federal aid.[6] The number of cattle in the US has been decreased to the lowest in 60 years due to drought impacts, with 69% of cattle located in areas currently facing drought conditions.[23][24]

Canada
Drought levels from 2000 to 2013

The drought affects Canada mainly in the east in Ontario, Quebec and the Atlantic provinces where there has been record setting heat and very little rainfall.[25] Summer crops in these areas have been affected and the price of produce is expected to increase, particularly corn and soybean.[26][27]

Percentage of crops affected by various drought severity levels

See also
Concurrent and Related Weather Events March 2012 North American heat wave Summer 2012 North American heat wave June 2012 North American derecho 2012 Oklahoma wildfires 2012 Colorado wildfires Other Widespread Severe Droughts Dust Bowl 1950s North American drought

1988 North American drought

References
1. ^ Freedman, Andrew (21 July 2012). "Causes Of Midwest Drought: La Nina And Global Warming Thought To Contribute To Dry Weather" (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/21/causes-of-midwest-drought2012_n_1690717.html). Huffington Post. Retrieved 14 January 2013. 2. ^ a b http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/ 3. ^ Parry, Wynne (19 July 2012). "How Bad Is the US Drought?" (http://news.yahoo.com/bad-us-drought040658131.html). LiveScience (Yahoo! News). Retrieved 19 July 2012. 4. ^ Masters, Jeff. "Dr." (http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/article.html?entrynum=2326). Weather Underground. Retrieved 13 January 2013. 5. ^ "2012 North American Drought" (http://thenationalweatherservice.com/). thenationalweatherservice.com. Retrieved August 24, 2012. 6. ^ a b c d "2012 North American Drought" (http://thenationalweatherservice.com/page/21/). thenationalweatherservice.com. August 21, 2012. Retrieved August 24, 2012. 7. ^ Kimery, Anthony (January 6, 2012). "FEMA - Dealing with the Drought" (http://www.hstoday.us/channels/fema/single-article-page/dealing-with-the-drought.html). Homeland Security Today. Retrieved 2012-08-24. 8. ^ Rains Bring Relief to Region; Winter Weather Reduces Drought in Southeast, Southwest; Other Areas Still Threatened (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324096404578356622584688316.html) March 12, 2013 WSJ 9. ^ Thin Snowpack in West Signals Summer of Drought (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/23/us/in-droughtstricken-heartland-snow-is-no-savior.html) February 22, 2013 NYT 10. ^ Various Authors. "So far, Arctic Oscillation favoring mild winter for eastern U.S." (http://www.climatewatch.noaa.gov/image/2011/so-far-arctic-oscillation-favoring-mild-winter-for-eastern-u-s). NOAA. Retrieved 14 January 2013. 11. ^ Freedman, Andrew (28 July 2012). "Tornado Season 2012: Record-Low Twister Count Is Drought's Silver Lining" (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/28/tornado-season-2012-recor_n_1711679.html). Retrieved 14 January 2013. 12. ^ Samenow, Jason (5 March 2012). "Tornado outbreak: recap of deadly March 2 storms in Tennessee and Ohio Valley, South" (http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/post/tornado-outbreak-recap-ofdeadly-march-2-storms-in-tennessee-and-ohio-valley-south/2012/03/05/gIQAHG3AtR_blog.html). The Washington Post. Retrieved 14 January 2013. 13. ^ Freedman, Andrew (9 July 2012). "2012 Heat Wave is Historic, if not Unprecedented" (http://www.climatecentral.org/blogs/was-the-heat-wave-an-unprecedented-event/). Retrieved 14 January 2013. 14. ^ Painter, Bryan (7 August 2011). "Dryness, heat make for vicious cycle" (http://newsok.com/dryness-heat-makefor-vicious-cycle/article/3592408). NewsOK. Retrieved 14 January 2013. 15. ^ "Drought Termination and Amelioration" (http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/temp-and-precip/drought/recovery.php). National Climatic Data Center. Retrieved 14 January 2013. 16. ^ http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/expert_assessment/season_drought.gif 17. ^ Crutchfield, Steve. "U.S. Drought 2012: Farm and Food Impacts" (http://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/in-thenews/us-drought-2012-farm-and-food-impacts.aspx). USDA ERS. Retrieved 13 January 2013. 18. ^ Drought Stalks the Global Food Supply (http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-07-05/drought-stalks-theglobal-food-supply), Business Week July 05, 2012 19. ^ Severe Drought Seen as Driving Cost of Food Up (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/26/business/food-pricesto-rise-in-wake-of-severe-drought.html) July 25, 2012 New York Times 20. ^ World Magazine "Our Parched Land" August 11, 2012 Daniel James Devine (author) 21. ^ MCWHIRTER, Cameroon (13 July 2013). "Trade Dries Up Along With Mississippi" (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303292204577519294147139420.html). Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 19 July 2012.

22. ^ http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57484846/u.s-drought-half-of-all-counties-disaster-areas/ 23. ^ Drought Drives Down Cattle Count (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323926104578278391287849144.html) February 1, 2013 WSJ 24. ^ Drought on the Range: Tough Times for U.S. Cattle Herd - 2013 (http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=cN2Ppkr08GE) April 11, 2013 (Video) New York Times 25. ^ http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/story/2012/07/20/crop-prices-drought-canada-us.html CBC.ca 26. ^ http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/story/2012/07/20/crop-prices-drought-canada-us.html 27. ^ Drying times; The 2012 drought will dent farm profits and push up food prices (http://www.economist.com/node/21559381) July 21st 2012 The Economist

External links
National Drought Mitigation Center (http://drought.unl.edu/) Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=2012 13_North_American_drought&oldid=551282222" Categories: Droughts of 2012 2012 natural disasters in the United States 2013 natural disasters in the United States 2013 natural disasters Droughts in the United States This page was last modified on 20 April 2013 at 13:26. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.