By Karl Plume
March 17 (Reuters) – A severe drought that has gripped parts of the western United States since mid-2020 is likely to persist or worsen this spring due to expected above-normal temperatures and below-normal precipitation, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said Thursday.
Dry conditions will enhance the risk of wildfires across the Southwest and southern U.S. Plains and stress farms in California, the nation’s top agricultural producer, NOAA said in its spring outlook.
More than 60% of the continental United States is already classified as being under minor drought or worse, the broadest area since 2013, according to the National Drought Mitigation Center.
“Prolonged, persistent drought will continue to impact much of the West and drought is forecast to develop during April through June in areas of the Southwest and central and southern Plains,” Jon Gottschalck, chief of the Operational Prediction Branch of NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center, said during a webinar.
However, drought conditions are expected to lessen or end in the upper Midwest and in coastal areas of the Southeast, he said.
The harsh pattern in the West is likely to heap further pressure on communities already on edge after recent years of severe wildfires and shrinking water reserves.
Water levels on Lake Powell, which provides water for Nevada, Arizona and California, are record low.
The drought has already forced farmers in the country’s top crop state to conserve water by reducing production or watering fruit and nut trees just to keep them alive.
“Since the beginning of the 21st century, about three out of four years in California have been drought years. That has led producers to have to adapt to the new normal, which is drought more often than not,” said Brad Rippey, meteorologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
“It does make for some very difficult producer decisions as to what to continue to grow and what to keep alive,” he said.
(Reporting by Karl Plume in Chicago; Editing by Aurora Ellis)
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