- Counties Declared in Drought Emergency Summer 2012 (4)
It would be easy to forget that we are still in a fairly severe drought in the midwest. Over the summer of 2012 82 counties in Kansas were declared as federal drought emergencies in early July 2012. Just two weeks later governor Sam Brownback declared every county in the state to be in a drought emergency. Each declaration has different meanings as the first allows for federal aid for agriculture and related industries, while the second allowed water to be taken from lakes in state parks to aid the same industries(1,2).
100% of Kansa counties in drought emergency August 2012
This summer the drought was hard to miss. Ponds were down to puddles, crops were failing and getting tilled back into the soil all around, trees were turning autumn colors and dying in July and lawns were dead with the ground dry and cracked.
Personally, I’ve never seen anything like it. Apparently, this was the worst drought in 25 years, if not more. Not long after, the East coast was getting hit by freakishly early winter storms and ‘superstore Sandy’. (I got regular updates from my family, who all live in the mid-Atlantic region).
Now, on the last days of December, the drought feels like a thing of the past, however, we are still in severe conditions here in the Midwest (I live in Kansas). I heard yesterday on NPR that Kansas is still 17″ below normal rainfall, and a quick look to the NOAA shows that the entire state is somewhere between ‘severe’ and ‘exceptional’ conditions (3).
With luck, I will be shoveling endlessly this winter and we can recover somewhat by spring.
I want to apologize, I haven’t been posting much lately because my family has been away and I have spent most of every day outside working on the shop from first light until dark and then collapsed exhausted inside.
I did have some time while waiting for my wife’s car in the shop yesterday to get a simple children’s book I wrote for/with my son put together as an iBook. It was submitted yesterday and will likely be available for free download sometime this coming week. I’ll post again when that’s available. (Don’t expect much though, the original was a hand-drawn mini book that I redrew using Fifty Three, Inc.’s ‘Paper’ App and an artist’s stylus… and I’m not that much of an artist)
1. http://www.ksda.gov/news/id/472
1. http://blogs.kansas.com/weather/2012/07/26/kansas-governor-declares-entire-state-is-in-drought-emergency/
3.http://www.crh.noaa.gov/eax/?n=drought
4. http://www.kwo.org/reports_publications/Drought.htm
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