U.S. Drought Monitor

[thewoodlands]

I didn't find a thread for this after doing a search but if there is one, please combine this one with the older one.

We'll see how long it takes our area to get in any type of drought.

Current Map | U.S. Drought Monitor

droughtmonitor.unl.edu

 

[begreen]

We're in the abnormally dry range right now. This is not a good start to our normally dry summer. My water bill is going to be high.

 

[thewoodlands]

We're in the abnormally dry range right now. This is not a good start to our normally dry summer. My water bill is going to be high.

Last year April was very dry with May being wet, this year the April showers were around and May has been ok for rain.

Hopefully things change for your area, we usually go through our dry spells, August is a really dry month for us but September can be real wet.

 

[Dan Freeman]

We are also in a abnormally dry area here in NE PA. Today, was the third time my Food Forest well ran out of water. It is not a real deep well and will regenerate over night, but this didn't happen at all last year until late Summer. We haven't had any significant rain in over 2 weeks, and the 10-day forecast is showing no rain. Grass looks like July, not May. This is not good. I am anticipating a dry, hot summer. I read an article yesterday that the current El Niño may be the worst since the 1960's. That means high heat and less rain for us. We are already very dry.

 

[thewoodlands]

We had a nice rain today (quarter of an inch) but we have stretch of eight days without any rain with warm temps coming in, I would say we're behind on rainfall so far this year but that's not based on any facts or numbers I've seen.

I hope you get some rain.

 

[woodgeek]

All the usual alarms are ringing about an impending large El Niño event. We've been in La Niña for 3 years, and this Niño is supposed to be a whopper, biggest in 25 years.

This suggests that the northern half of the US (and Canada) will be warmer and drier than normal this year, and the southern US will be wetter and cooler. States in the middle (like the mid-atlantic) will be kinda a wash.

Expect a BAD fire season in PNW, Rockies and western Canada. And Australia and Indonesia.

Tornados in the prairie states and atlantic hurricanes will be significantly suppressed. Time to book that trip to the Caribbean, or Omaha.

Southern Pacific storms will be more powerful. Probably not bad for SoCal mega-drought, but not great for landslides and floods.

How El Niño and La Niña affect the winter jet stream and U.S. climate

Last week, NOAA issued a La Niña watch, indicating conditions are favorable for the development of La Niña this winter. What does a La Niña winter typically mean for the U.S.?

www.climate.gov

 

[begreen]

We're in a wait-and-see situation with the upcoming el Niño. It depends on whether the tropical atmosphere couples with the ocean. There's a high probability it will. If so, it may not bode well for wildfires this year. We're 6" below normal rainfall here so far this year. May's total is under an inch and no rain is expected through the end of the month which is less than half the normal May rainfall. The trees are already stressed due to the past dry summers. Not a good combo.

 

[Ashful]

Grass looks like July, not May.

Was just noting the same, here. Although given it's still cool (48F - 68F here today), we're still mowing twice per week. In July, everything just stops, here.

 

[Dan Freeman]

Was just noting the same, here. Although given it's still cool (48F - 68F here today), we're still mowing twice per week. In July, everything just stops, here.

By now, we have usually mowed 4 times. This year, it has only been twice. I have never seen everything beginning to turn brown this early. We are having higher temps here.

 

[begreen]

4 mowings here since late February. I need to mow again today or tomorrow. However, I notice the field grass has really slowed down so I will just mow around the house this time.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

I never knew about the drought monitor until I moved to Texas. Here it’s featured on the local news channel’s online weather page. I check the site every week or two.

We moved into exceptional drought some time last summer and have pretty much stayed there until the last week or so. The current data shows us right on the border between exceptional and extreme, so we’re making progress. The forecast El Niño means a probability of wetter weather for our part of the country, and I’m really thankful. We’ve had some pretty good rains this month, and the whole landscape is looking much better.

 

[bogieb]

I was in Kansas last week visiting family. The region I was in is in Exceptional drought. But, everyone has green lawns becuase they are watering faithfully "everyone is a little strong, but "most" is not - and I was mostly outside of the big city). I'm sorry, I just don't get that. I mean I get that farmers need to water their crops, but lawns just aren't important.

 

[Ashful]

I get that farmers need to water their crops, but lawns just aren't important.

To some degree, but not entirely. A pretty lawn isn't important, but a total loss creates a financial burden + concerns with erosion. There are hilly parts of my yard that I cannot keep alive due to constant tractor / wood processing traffic, and the erosion of topsoil there is extreme. There's basically no topsoil left there, after 10 consecutive years of heavy rain and wind on a constantly-traffic'd area. I'm down to hard pan, and nothing will ever grow on that.

At least around here, it's in your best interest to keep a lawn watered at a minimum survival rate, if it can be done without creating more severe hardships, through any drought. But I know some parts of the country deal with drought like we've never seen here in the east, we are relatively lucky, in that regard.

 

[woodgeek]

To some degree, but not entirely. A pretty lawn isn't important, but a total loss creates a financial burden + concerns with erosion. There are hilly parts of my yard that I cannot keep alive due to constant tractor / wood processing traffic, and the erosion of topsoil there is extreme. There's basically no topsoil left there, after 10 consecutive years of heavy rain and wind on a constantly-traffic'd area. I'm down to hard pan, and nothing will ever grow on that.

At least around here, it's in your best interest to keep a lawn watered at a minimum survival rate, if it can be done without creating more severe hardships, through any drought. But I know some parts of the country deal with drought like we've never seen here in the east, we are relatively lucky, in that regard.

More to the point, our area has copious rainfall, even relative to its population density, and quite low incidence of droughts due to being on the Niña/Niño boundary line. We don't have to make hard water choices here.

 

[Ashful]

Definitely. Worst I remember here was 1997 - 1999, more because of the mess that ended it with such a bang (Hurricane Floyd), than for the drought alone. I lost about half the trees on my property during that 2-year drought, which was a mess, but Floyd did more damage than all of that in under 24 hours.

 

[begreen]

Definitely. Worst I remember here was 1997 - 1999, more because of the mess that ended it with such a bang (Hurricane Floyd), than for the drought alone. I lost about half the trees on my property during that 2-year drought, which was a mess, but Floyd did more damage than all of that in under 24 hours.

That's a bad situation. The trees were hit with a knockdown punch when they were at their weakest.

 

[thewoodlands]

We're having our first full week of hot weather (for us) the temps have been in the 80's with one day forecast to hit almost 90 without any rain until 6/6.

The 10 Norway Spruce I planted earlier are sucking up the water, so far they look fine.

After mowing in early in May, my wife had mentioned a bunch of people in our town were doing a no mow May so we haven't mowed since. With our lot being mostly sand, if I had mowed it and this hot weather moved in, it would be browning up.

 

[Dan Freeman]

Just heard on the local news that our rainfall for May has only been 0.24 inches. 2nd driest May on record since 1964 when we had 0.09 inches. No rain in the forecast for the next ten days. My yard is crispy brown already. I am worried about all the trees, bushes, vines, and annual vegetables in our food forest. I have thousands of dollars invested in the food forest in the past 2 years. I may have to start deciding which plants get water, and which do not get water.

I have two wells. The shallower of the 2 (just used for the food forest) dried up again this afternoon after running it for only about 15 minutes. Our house well is deeper, but we are already conserving earlier than ever.

 

[begreen]

Just heard on the local news that our rainfall for May has only been 0.24 inches. 2nd driest May on record since 1964 when we had 0.09 inches. No rain in the forecast for the next ten days. My yard is crispy brown already. I am worried about all the trees, bushes, vines, and annual vegetables in our food forest. I have thousands of dollars invested in the food forest in the past 2 years. I may have to start deciding which plants get water, and which do not get water.

I have two wells. The shallower of the 2 (just used for the food forest) dried up again this afternoon after running it for only about 15 minutes. Our house well is deeper, but we are already conserving earlier than ever.

That sounds just like our weather. We've had .12' of rain since May 7th and none is predicted in the 10-day forecast.

 

[GrumpyDad]

Im adding dehumidification at my cabin and buying a robotic lawn mower to tend to grass. It's never going to rain or be humid. Grass looks like a bad summer with no rain / high heat in august.
The same happened when I bought my truck and my snow thrower, no snow those years... records lows.
What should I buy next so the opposite occurs?

 

[tlc1976]

After we had pretty much nothing but rain or snow or winter temps for several weeks, 4 days later the news said we were in drought. I don’t know what to believe.

It has finally turned nice for good. Last week I was still burning pellets. It hasn’t rained much, but my grass is green and high. 2018 it dried out pretty good and was approaching brown in spots, but always comes back. I never fertilize or water or rake or bag clippings or anything, just let nature do its thing.

I mowed the weekend before Memorial Day to keep the bugs down. I already had 2 spiders and 1 tick on me this year. Now when I come in I immediately brush my hair forward and down and hopefully any bugs will fall out onto the floor. I’ve got some 90% deet spray I use when working outside in the evening when the skeeters come out.

 

[GrumpyDad]

After we had pretty much nothing but rain or snow or winter temps for several weeks, 4 days later the news said we were in drought. I don’t know what to believe.

It has finally turned nice for good. Last week I was still burning pellets. It hasn’t rained much, but my grass is green and high. 2018 it dried out pretty good and was approaching brown in spots, but always comes back. I never fertilize or water or rake or bag clippings or anything, just let nature do its thing.

I mowed the weekend before Memorial Day to keep the bugs down. I already had 2 spiders and 1 tick on me this year. Now when I come in I immediately brush my hair forward and down and hopefully any bugs will fall out onto the floor. I’ve got some 90% deet spray I use when working outside in the evening when the skeeters come out.

I use this Greenerway repellent (deet free) and it does an ok job for me...for awhile. I get gnats on my head like crazy without a hat and spray. We are in the middle of gnat season right now. All outdoor work comes to a halt unless necessary.

 

[bogieb]

I have real problems with DEET so I use a homemade solution of rubbing alcohol and ylang-ylang. Seems to work pretty good on repelling ticks, black flies and mosquitoes. The only time I've found a tick on me was when I forgot to spray some on before going out to mow/do yard work. And that was as recently as 10 days ago - felt it racing up my leg just after going inside - caught it and sent it down the commode.

If I am just going to read in the sitting area in the bckyard, I rub some lemon balm or, lemon thyme, or other such plant on my arms, legs and neck. Does alright (although not perfect) as long as I'm not sweating up a storm. I keep a couple of plants on the back porch so they are easy to grab a couple of leaves while going out.

 

[Dan Freeman]

Still no rain in the foreseeable future here after 0.24 inches of rain in May. My yard is "toast". Here is a pic of one section off of my front porch.

I am not even thinking about my vegetables at this point. My main concerns are now the thousands of dollars I spent on fruit trees, bushes, and vines, and our house water.

We are already in the worst drought in 59 years here, and from what they say, there is no relief in sight.

 

[Ashful]

Heading out to the back yard shortly to repair some irrigation lines. I have an excavator here digging today, and while digging trenches for some new drain lines, he took out two 1-inch irrigations lines I had forgotten to mark. Not the time to be without!

I've been watering the highest and dryest parts of my lawn. It doesn't take much to keep it on the right side of dead. It ain't lush, by any measure, but at least I won't be replanting!