Kansas Drought (Wichita, Salina, Plains: living, costs, trees)

[WILWRadio]

I just took a look at Drought Monitor's site to see where the droughts are in the USA and noted most of KS is under exceptional or extreme drought conditions.

How is the public water supply in these areas holding out? Any rationing? Are the aquifers starting to dry up faster than in years past? I know the Ogallala has slowly been drying up for decades but a drought like this must be having an major impact.

[CrownVic95]

Originally Posted by WILWRadio

I just took a look at Drought Monitor's site to see where the droughts are in the USA and noted most of KS is under exceptional or extreme drought conditions.

How is the public water supply in these areas holding out? Any rationing? Are the aquifers starting to dry up faster than in years past? I know the Ogallala has slowly been drying up for decades but a drought like this must be having an major impact.

Droughts come and go.

Two years ago, much of the west looked like Kansas today. Record winter rain and snowfall completely changed our world. Two years ago, Kansas was in very good shape and will be again.

[rrampage]

Originally Posted by CrownVic95

Droughts come and go.

Two years ago, much of the west looked like Kansas today. Record winter rain and snowfall completely changed our world. Two years ago, Kansas was in very good shape and will be again.

The problem is that we currently cannot confirm or deny what weather is awaiting Kansas. There is no way to know. We have more warming trends in the World than cooling trends. Certainly, this cannot be seen as a positive sign.

I would also add that Eastern Kansas and Eastern Nebraska being involved in this situation doesn't look particularly positive.

[CrownVic95]

Originally Posted by rrampage

The problem is that we currently cannot confirm or deny what weather is awaiting Kansas. There is no way to know. We have more warming trends in the World than cooling trends. Certainly, this cannot be seen as a positive sign.

I would also add that Eastern Kansas and Eastern Nebraska being involved in this situation doesn't look particularly positive.

Oh mercy....we can't control the weather? Like we could before evil human beings harnessed the energy in petroleum products to vastly improve living standards world-wide?

It is neither positive or negative. It is life....it is nature.

[rrampage]

Originally Posted by CrownVic95

Oh mercy....we can't control the weather? Like we could before evil human beings harnessed the energy in petroleum products to vastly improve living standards world-wide?

It is neither positive or negative. It is life....it is nature.

I never even mentioned political matters, nor did I state whether weather was controllable or not. Your post is very telling.

[WILWRadio]

In past years when I viewed the Drought Monitor I noted eastern KS didn't have drought conditions to this extent that often. Always west of a line from Salina to Wichita. But even this seems to be expanded over more square miles than I recall seeing in the past 20 years. Weather is cyclical though but the question is just how long will this extreme dry cycle last?

[rrampage]

Originally Posted by WILWRadio

In past years when I viewed the Drought Monitor I noted eastern KS didn't have drought conditions to this extent that often. Always west of a line from Salina to Wichita. But even this seems to be expanded over more square miles than I recall seeing in the past 20 years. Weather is cyclical though but the question is just how long will this extreme dry cycle last?

Pretty hard to ignore that.

[Phil P]

Meanwhile everything east of KS has been less drought stricken over the last several decades. Those pivots out on the farming plains dumping out water have to change the climate too, but I think that moist air blows east.

We just got out of a triple la nina and the weather generally blows west to east. Here in NM we are catching the evaporation of AZ / CA now, lots of drizzle which is kinda abnormal.

I was surprised that there's not much dead trees in KS when I drove through last Oct. If the drought is dire, you'd think there'd be more dead stuff. Even some fields in west kansas were still green.

[GraniteStater]

The long-term trends for most of the Central and High Plains is one of increasing drought due to warmer climate, meaning more evaporation of soil moisture out of the ground overall. So, this can mitigate at or somewhat above average precipitation years. Center pivot irrigation is going away ASAP as it costs $$$$ to drill a new well to find water in a rapidly depleting water table.

[ShowMeBryan]

I believe Dust Bowl 2.0 is a definite, if not unavoidable, possibility. There's no way to recharge the Ogalalla Aquifer fast enough.