Mega-Drought Expected To Bring Dust Storms, Water Restrictions And Wildfires

Summer Megadrought Expected To Bring Dust Storms, Water Restrictions & Wildfires

 MICHAEL SNYDER

The megadrought that has almost the entire western half of the country in a death grip is starting to become extremely painful.  In some areas, irrigation water is being totally cut off for farmers, and that is going to result in a totally lost year for many of them.  

Without water, you simply cannot grow crops, and irrigation water is the difference between success and failure for multitudes of western farmers.  

Scientists are also warning that this upcoming wildfire season could be even worse than last year due to the bone dry conditions.  For me, it is difficult to imagine a wildfire season that is any worse than what we experienced in 2021.  But this is what they are telling us.  

This megadrought has already been going on for many years, and experts are giving us very little hope that things will improve any time in the foreseeable future.  

In fact, CBS News is reporting that this current drought is in danger of evolving into a "permanent drought"...

Extreme drought across the Western U.S. has become as reliable as a summer afternoon thunderstorm in Florida. And news headlines about drought in the West can seem a bit like a broken record, with some scientists saying the region is on the precipice of permanent drought.

Even during the "Dust Bowl" of the 1930s, there was always hope that the drought would end and normal conditions would return.

But now we are being told that this is the new normal.

Consequently, this past winter's wet season was not very wet at all. In fact, it just added insult to injury, with only 25 to 50% of normal rainfall falling across much of the Southwest and California. This followed one of the driest and hottest summers in modern times, with two historic heat waves, a summer monsoon cycle that simply did not even show up and the worst fire season in modern times.

Now we are moving into "the dry season", and there simply is not enough water for everyone.

Along the California-Oregon border, things just went from bad to worse.  Farmers in the region already knew that they would be getting much less water this year, but now federal officials have decided to completely shut the water off for most farmers...

The water crisis along the California-Oregon border went from dire to catastrophic this week as federal regulators shut off irrigation water to farmers from a critical reservoir and said they would not send extra water to dying salmon downstream or to a half-dozen wildlife refuges that harbor millions of migrating birds each year.