2012–2013 North American drought

Natural disaster in North America yes article January 2013 February 2025 375px|thumb|Animation of U.S. drought map, 2012–2013 375 Current-USDM.gif The U.S. Drought Monitor on August 21, 2012 Drought Map Canada July 2012.png A map showing the drought in Eastern Canada vertical The 2012–2013 North American drought, an expansion of the 2010–2013 Southern United States drought, originated in the midst of a record-breaking heat wave. Low snowfall amounts in winter, coupled with the intense summer heat from La Niña, caused drought-like conditions to migrate northward from the southern United States, wreaking havoc on crops and water supply.Freedman Andrew Causes Of Midwest Drought: La Nina And Global Warming Thought To Contribute To Dry Weather https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/21/causes-of-midwest-drought-2012_n_1690717.html 14 January 2013 Huffington Post 21 July 2012 The drought inflicted significant economic ramifications for the affected states. It exceeded, in many measures, the 1988–1989 North American drought, the most recent comparable drought.Kimery Anthony FEMA – Dealing with the Drought http://www.hstoday.us/channels/fema/single-article-page/dealing-with-the-drought.html Homeland Security Today 2012-08-24 January 6, 2012 dead https://web.archive.org/web/20111225225040/http://www.hstoday.us/channels/fema/single-article-page/dealing-with-the-drought.html December 25, 2011 The drought affected most of the U.S., parts of Mexico, and central and Eastern Canada.December 2019 need a source for drought in Mexico and Canada At its peak in July 2012,https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/Maps/MapArchive.aspx Map Archive - July 17, 2012 droughtmonitor.unl.edu 2019-12-22 it covered approximately 81 percent of the contiguous United States with at least abnormally dry (D0) conditions. Out of that 81%, 64% was designated as at least moderate drought (D1) conditions.http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/data/pngs/20120717/20120717_conus_trd.png July 17, 2012 DroughtMonitor.UNL.edu United States Drought Monitor August 9, 2016 August 6, 2016 https://web.archive.org/web/20160806151928/http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/data/pngs/20120717/20120717_conus_trd.png dead Its area was comparable to the droughts of the 1930s and 1950s.Parry Wynne How Bad Is the US Drought? https://news.yahoo.com/bad-us-drought-040658131.html 19 July 2012 Yahoo! News LiveScience 19 July 2012https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887324096404578356622584688316 Rains Bring Relief to Region; Winter Weather Reduces Drought in Southeast, Southwest; Other Areas Still Threatened Cameron Mcwhirter March 12, 2013 The Wall Street Journal Drought continued in parts of North America through 2013.Thin Snowpack in West Signals Summer of Drought February 22, 2013 The New York Times Beginning in March 2013, improved rainfall across the Midwest, southern Mississippi Valley, and Great Plains began gradually alleviating drought in these areas, while drought continued to intensify in the Western United States. Heavy rains across previously drought-stricken areas resulted in widespread flooding in portions of the Midwest, a phenomenon which was named "weather whiplash".https://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/06/12/191071185/as-drought-turns-to-floods-farmers-get-weather-whiplash As Drought Turns To Flood, Farmers Get 'Weather Whiplash' : The Salt NPR 2013-06-12 2014-03-03 By June 2013, approximately the eastern half of the United States was drought-free, while conditions continued to gradually improve across the Plains. Moderate to severe drought continued to impact and worsen throughout the western United States, with some portions of the United States being afflicted by the drought for over three years. Through the winter of 2013–2014, California continued to receive record low rainfall.Becerra, Hector (September 25, 2014) "Drought has 14 communities on the brink of waterlessness" Los Angeles Times For many locations, the calendar year of 2013 was the driest year in over 130 years. Some locations received less than half of their previous record low rainfall amounts.In Midwest, Drought Gives Way to Flood April 25, 2013 New York Times Meteorological background thumb|right|400px|United States Drought Monitor on January 3 and July 3, 2012; note the massive expansion from the South to most of the U.S. Drought in the United States Southwestern North American megadrought The drought was set in motion when strongly positive Arctic oscillation and North Atlantic oscillation conditions removed winter storms from the U.S. the winter of 2011–2012.So far, Arctic Oscillation favoring mild winter for eastern U.S. https://www.climate.gov/news-features/featured-images/so-far-arctic-oscillation-favoring-mild-winter-eastern-us https://web.archive.org/web/20140717165738/http://www.climate.gov/news-features/featured-images/so-far-arctic-oscillation-favoring-mild-winter-eastern-us dead July 17, 2014 Climate.gov 21 December 2011 17 September 2014 When spring arrived, very little snow 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 U.S.Freedman Andrew Tornado Season 2012: Record-Low Twister Count Is Drought's Silver Lining https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/28/tornado-season-2012-recor_n_1711679.html The Huffington Post 14 January 2013 28 July 2012 The strongest tornado outbreak of 2012 occurred on March 2, after most snow had melted.Samenow Jason Tornado outbreak: recap of deadly March 2 storms in Tennessee and Ohio Valley, South https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/post/tornado-outbreak-recap-of-deadly-march-2-storms-in-tennessee-and-ohio-valley-south/2012/03/05/gIQAHG3AtR_blog.html 14 January 2013 The Washington Post 5 March 2012 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.Freedman Andrew 2012 Heat Wave is Historic, if not Unprecedented http://www.climatecentral.org/blogs/was-the-heat-wave-an-unprecedented-event/ 14 January 2013 Climate Central 9 July 2012 January 22, 2013 https://web.archive.org/web/20130122065535/http://www.climatecentral.org/blogs/was-the-heat-wave-an-unprecedented-event/ dead thumb|left|Percent Area in U.S. Drought Monitor Categories 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).Painter Bryan Dryness, heat make for vicious cycle http://newsok.com/dryness-heat-make-for-vicious-cycle/article/3592408 14 January 2013 NewsOK 7 August 2011 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.Drought Termination and Amelioration http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/temp-and-precip/drought/recovery.php National Climatic Data Center 14 January 2013 Soil hardening due to the drought means that even if a large amount of rain falls in a short time, most of it is not absorbed and instead runs 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.May 2024 The drought continued and intensified into the end of November 2014 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.http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/ United States Drought Monitor > Home DroughtMonitor.UNL.edu 2014-03-03https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/Drought/ United States Drought Information Climate Prediction Center 17 September 2014 A study by Utah State University analyzed the 2011 Missouri River Flooding and predicted that "a prominent teleconnection forcing in driving the wet/dry spells in the (Missouri River Basin)... implies persistence of dry conditions for the next 2 to 3 years", which coincides with the 2012–15 drought.10.1002/2013GL059042 41 3 The Pacific quasi-decadal oscillation (QDO): An important precursor toward anticipating major flood events in the Missouri River Basin? Geophysical Research Letters 991–997 Wang Shih-Yu 2014GeoRL..41..991W 2014 https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/115730/1/MRB.pdf free That analysis was based upon a marked variability at the 10- to 15- year time scale that is coincident with the water storage increase in the Missouri River Basin. The study found that precipitation over the Missouri River Basin undergoes a profound modulation during the transition points of the Pacific quasi-decadal oscillation and associated teleconnections.https://ams.confex.com/ams/94Annual/videogateway.cgi/id/25952?recordingid=25952 Video Gateway: Teleconnection and the buildup of water storage leading to the 2011 Missouri River flooding ams.confex.com Impacts United States thumbnail|left|Percentage of crops affected by various drought severity levels The drought cost more than $35 billion in the Midwest, and may have reduced the gross domestic product of the U.S. as a whole by 0.5–1%, equating to a loss of $75 to $150 billion.Masters Jeff Dr. http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/article.html?entrynum=2326 Weather Underground 13 January 2013 Crops, particularly strains grown in the most heavily affected regions (such as corn and soybeans), were noted to be failing or yielding very low in 2012 due to the drought's presence in farming areas.Crutchfield Steve U.S. Drought 2012: Farm and Food Impacts http://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/in-the-news/us-drought-2012-farm-and-food-impacts.aspx USDA ERS 13 January 2013 dead https://web.archive.org/web/20130116030109/http://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/in-the-news/us-drought-2012-farm-and-food-impacts.aspx 16 January 2013 This increase in cost moved up the feeding chain and resulted in raised prices for meat, dairy, and processed food products.May 2013Food prices increased as a result of the consequent supply shortfall.Drought Stalks the Global Food Supply, Business Week July 5, 2012Severe Drought Seen as Driving Cost of Food Up July 25, 2012 The New York Times The price of farm equipment, on the other hand, decreased as farmers were forced to sell off their equipment and machinery to cope with decreased incomes.World Magazine "Our Parched Land" August 11, 2012 Daniel James Devine (author) Water levels on parts of the Mississippi River plummeted, affecting trade and commerce.MCWHIRTER Cameroon Trade Dries Up Along With Mississippi https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702303292204577519294147139420 19 July 2012 Wall Street Journal 13 July 2013 1,692 counties across 36 states in the U.S. were legally declared primary natural disaster areas in August 2012 as the drought covered over 62% of the contiguous U.S.AP https://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-drought-half-of-all-counties-disaster-areas/ U.S. drought: Half of all counties disaster areas CBS News 2012-08-01 2014-03-03 Hundreds of additional counties bordering the primary disaster areas were designated as "contiguous" disaster areas, and are also eligible for federal aid. The number of cattle in the U.S. decreased to the lowest in 60 years due to drought impacts, with 69% of cattle located in areas that faced drought conditions.https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887323926104578278391287849144 Drought Drives Down Cattle Count Mark Peters 2 February 2013 WSJhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cN2Ppkr08GE Drought on the Range: Tough Times for U.S. Cattle Herd – 2013 – The New York Times 11 April 2013 YouTube California 2011–2017 California drought thumb|Folsom Lake reservoir during the California drought in January 2014 California had been experiencing a drought since 2011. In 2013 the total rainfall was less than 34% of what was expected. Many regions of the state accumulated less rainfall in 2013 than any other year on record. As a result of this, many fish species were threatened. Streams and rivers were so low that fish couldn't get to their spawning grounds, and survival rates of any eggs that are laid were expected to be low. Lack of rainfall had caused the mouths of rivers to be blocked off by sand bars which further prevents fish from reaching their spawning grounds. Stafford Lehr, Chief of Fisheries within the California Department of Fish and Wildlife says that 95% of winter run salmon didn't survive in 2013.Hickey Brian Calif. bans fishing on more rivers due to drought http://www.kcra.com/news/local-news/news-sacramento/fishing-ban-considered-on-american-river/24302234 KCRA.Com KCRA February 5, 2014 May 25, 2015 Not only did the drought severely affect fishing, but also agriculture. Decreasing rainfall amounts and increasing temperatures cause agriculture to be much more challenging due to increasing rates of evapotranspiration.An Introduction to Human-Environment Geography Moseley William Blackwell Publishing 2014 978-1-4051-8931-6 Chichester, West Sussex, UK 206 In response to heightening drought conditions, California tightened fishing restrictions in many areas of the state. Streams and rivers on the northern coast had unprecedented amounts of fishing bans. In February 2015 the California Fish and Game Commission voted unanimously to further tighten regulations on both recreational and commercial fishing. The U.S. Endangered Species Act listed steelhead as threatened and coho salmon as endangered. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife closed dozens of streams and rivers to fishing in 2014. Lehr said that he fears coho salmon may go completely extinct south of the Golden Gate Bridge in the near future. In early 2014 the main stems of the Eel, Mad, Smith, Van Duzen, and Mattole rivers were closed pending additional rainfall. Large areas of the Russian and American rivers were closed indefinitely. Most rivers in San Mateo, Santa Cruz and Monterey counties were also closed pending further rainfall. Other actions were also taken, such as releasing more water from the Kent Dam in hopes of raising the levels in the Lagunitas Creek watershed – one of the last spawning grounds that wild coho can still reach.Clarke Chris Drought May Already Have Killed Off Central Coast Coho Salmon https://www.kcet.org/news/redefine/rewild/fish/drought-may-already-have-killed-off-central-coast-coho-salmon.html KCET January 28, 2014 May 25, 2015 Protesters said that banning fishing will disrupt the economy and threaten the livelihoods of individuals who rely on salmon fishing during the winters. Officials felt that it would help prevent species that are already at risk of extinction.Kinney Aaron Historic fishing ban expanded by California wildlife officials https://www.mercurynews.com/san-mateo-county-times/ci_25069277/california-wildlife-officials-expand-historic-fishing-ban San Jose Mercury News May 25, 2015 February 5, 2014 Canada The drought affected Canada mainly in the east in Ontario, Quebec, and the Atlantic provinces, where there was record setting heat and very little rainfall. Summer crops in these areas were affected and the price of produce, particularly corn and soybeans, was expected to increase.https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/record-crop-prices-spur-food-crisis-worries-1.1221785 Record crop prices spur food-crisis worries July 20, 2012 CBC News 2014-03-03Drying times; The 2012 drought will dent farm profits and push up food prices July 21st 2012 The Economist See also Weather Concurrent and related weather events Summer 2012 North American heat wave June 2012 North American derecho 2012 Oklahoma wildfires 2012 Colorado wildfires Climate change in California 2013 California wildfires 2014 California wildfires 2015 Puerto Rican drought Other widespread severe droughts Dust Bowl 1950s North American drought 1988 North American drought 2020–22 North American drought References 30em External links Annual Drought Report for 2012, National Climatic Data Center, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Drought Mitigation Center Lifestyles of the Rich and Parched – How the Golden State’s 1 percenters are avoiding the drought, Politico magazine Category:Droughts in North America Drought Drought Drought Drought Drought Drought Drought Drought Drought Drought Drought Drought Category:Natural disasters in Mexico 2012 Drought Category:Droughts in the United States Category:Droughts in Canada North America North America North America North America