We select interesting and representative drought stories from all over the U.S. and around the world. We group them into the same categories that the Drought Impact Reporter uses, as well as a few others.
Agriculture
WAGM (Presque Isle, Maine), 7-30-2020
Affected Area: Maine
Drought in Maine’s Aroostook County was hampering crops, such as hay, potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower and others, as more irrigation was needed. A few lakes experienced fish kills.
Hudson Valley 360 (Hudson, N.Y.), 7-30-2020
Affected Area: New York
Unusually dry weather since May has left farmers in Greene and Columbia counties irrigating to keep crops going. Many creeks and ponds were very low. Fruit and vegetable crops were affected, as well as wheat, dairy and livestock.
KCAU 9 (Sioux City, Iowa), 7-29-2020
Affected Area: South Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska and Iowa
Crops showed signs of drought stress in the Siouxland area. Near La Mars, Iowa, corn leaves were curling, and soybean leaves turned over, indicating yields will likely be affected.
The St. John Source (Christiansted, V.I.), 7-29-2020
Affected Area: U.S. Virgin Islands
The Caribbean drought began in April and peaked in late June and early July, damaging crops, stressing vegetation and drying up ponds and cisterns. Farmers were buying feed for livestock. V.I. Department of Agriculture records indicate that more than 1,399,133 gallons of water have been provided to farmers on the islands from April through June.
Specialty crop production on St. Thomas was reduced because the Virgin Islands Department of Agriculture was unable to deliver water. Pond levels were lowest in May.
Access to an aquifer and strategic well systems allowed St. John farmers to use conservations measures and continue specialty crop production.
On St. Croix, drought affected livestock nutrition, as well as breeding and fertility.
Herald (Hagerstown, Md.), 7-25-2020
Affected Area: Maryland
The hot, dry summer was damaging dryland crops in southern Pennsylvania, Maryland and eastern West Virginia. In Washington County, Md., field crops like corn, soybeans and hay were suffering. A farmer observed that the corn was in very bad shape, and the yield was going to be at least 60 percent for fodder. An educator with the University of Maryland Extension in Washington County stated that the reduction in corn yield would be close to 50 percent, due to poor rainfall when the ears were forming. Smaller ears will cause a loss of at least a third of the crop.
Business & Industry
ENewsCourier.com (Athens, Ala.), 10-12-2019
Affected Area: Athens, Alabama
The absence of rain has allowed the construction of the new Athens Recreation Center to continue slightly ahead of schedule without rain delays. The facility was originally intended to open in May 2020, but should be ready in April 2020.
Yahoo! Finance, 8-21-2019
Affected Area: U.S.
Despite the record wet weather the U.S. has seen in the past twelve months, mentions of drought-resistant features in home listings remained high in California and Arizona. The term “xeriscape” is often used in New Mexico and Colorado, while drought mentions in Georgia frequently relate to lakefront homeowners’ dock usability amid drought.
Phoenix New Times, 2-28-2019
Affected Area: Arizona
Arizona companies with water stand to make a nice profit as water supplies increase in value, given the anticipated reduction in water from the Colorado River.
KLBK & KAMC-TV EverythingLubbock.com (Texas), 8-8-2018
Affected Area: Lubbock, Texas
Plant nurseries in the Lubbock area were struggling to maintain their stock amid drought, with employees putting in extra time to water plants.
U.S. News & World Report, 8-17-2017
Affected Area: Plains and Midwest
The overall Rural Mainstreet Index for 10 Plains and Midwestern states rose from July’s 40.7 to 42.2 in August. Any number below 50 indicates a shrinking economy. Nearly 58 percent of bankers who participated in the August survey felt that drought conditions were negatively impacting agricultural products in their area. Surveyors consulted bankers in Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming.
Energy
KFSK (Petersburg, Alaska), 7-23-2020
Affected Area: Alaska
Southeast Alaska’s wet summer has nearly refilled hydroelectric reservoirs that were depleted by drought beginning in 2017. Since then, the communities of Petersburg, Wrangell and Ketchikan have relied on diesel power while hydropower was not available. Diesel power is more expensive, negatively impacting revenue for the Southeast Alaska Power Agency. Swan Lake near Ketchikan and Tyee Lake near Wrangell may be able to spill later this week if the rain continues.
Seacoast Online (Portsmouth, N.H.), 6-25-2020
Affected Area: New Hampshire
As lake levels fall in New Hampshire, dam releases were reduced to a minimum, meaning many small hydropower projects on the state’s tributary rivers were no longer able to generate power. Larger hydropower projects on the main stem rivers, such as the Merrimack and Connecticut, were still operating.
Ninety-four water systems had implemented water restrictions.
KRBD-FM 103.5 Community Radio (Ketchikan, Alaska), 12-16-2019
Affected Area: Southeast Alaska
The Southeast Alaska Power Agency sold less power during the past two years as drought reduced hydropower production, forcing communities to rely on polluting, expensive diesel power. Whereas revenues typically range from $10 million to $12 million annually, in the past year, it was a little more than $9 million.
Alaska Public Media, 10-30-2019
Affected Area: Alaska
Hydroelectric lakes in Southeast Alaska were still recovering from drought, and needed more precipitation before winter arrives. Swan Lake and Tyee Lake provide some of the electricity for Ketchikan, Wrangell and Petersburg, which have relied on backup diesel power in the past year.
The Cullman Times (Ala.), 9-30-2019
Affected Area: Alabama
Alabama Power was limiting water releases from its dams as drought gripped the state.
Fire
Washington State Department of Natural Resources (Olympia, Wash.), 7-28-2020
Affected Area: Washington State
Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz signed an order July 27 creating a statewide burn ban on all forestland under the Washington State Department of Natural Resources’ fire protection. This covers 12 million acres of public and private land. The order took effect July 28 and is valid through Sept. 30, unless fire conditions improve.
Bangor Daily News (Maine), 7-25-2020
Affected Area: Maine
The Maine Forest Service reported that the state had a 170 percent increase in wildfires in 2020, compared to the previous year, amounting to the highest fire count in a decade. Forest rangers responded to nearly 800 fires that charred nearly 900 acres so far in 2020.
Cody Enterprise (Wyo.), 7-20-2020
Affected Area: Wyoming
The Bureau of Land Management enacted fire restrictions throughout the Big Horn Basin, due to current and forecasted weather conditions, dry vegetation and other factors. Numerous grass fires sparked in the Cody area, and a 17,000 acre fire burned near Worland. BLM and Yellowstone National Park recently reminded the public of the increased fire danger. The Bureau of Reclamation was also reminding visitors to observe county fire rules while on BuRec land.
ABC 4 KTVX (Salt Lake City, Utah), 7-20-2020
Affected Area: Utah
The Bureau of Land Management Salt Lake Field Office enacted fire restrictions on BLM-managed lands in Salt Lake, Utah, Tooele, Box Elder, Cache, Rich, Weber, Morgan, Davis, Summit, and Wasatch counties, effective July 20. Current and forecasted weather, combined with extremely dry vegetation, have elevated the fire danger in northern Utah.
Similar fire restrictions took effect in Juab and Millard counties on July 13 and were implemented by the BLM Fillmore Field Office.
New Hampshire Public Radio (Concord), 7-6-2020
Affected Area: New Hampshire
Moderate drought conditions and the heightened fire risk prompted the N.H. Forest Protection Bureau and the N.H. Fire Marshal’s Office to ask the public “to pay extra attention to how their summertime activities might unintentionally start a wildfire.”
General Awareness
The Denver Channel, 7-9-2020
Affected Area: Colorado
Moderate drought took hold in the Denver area and exceptional drought was removed from southeastern Colorado. Thirty-four percent of Colorado was in extreme drought. Most of the state was facing Stage 1 or Stage 2 fire restrictions.
CentralMaine (Augusta), 6-25-2020
Affected Area: Maine
Poor late spring rainfall led to drought in parts of northern and southern Maine. Precipitation has been low across much of the Northeast, with amounts ranging from 25 to 50 percent over the past 30-60 days. Streamflows were far below normal, below the 10th percentile. Some corn leaf rolling has been reported.
Syracuse Post-Standard & Syracuse.com (N.Y.), 6-18-2020
Affected Area: New York
Central New York has experienced its driest June in 26 years, with little significant rain forecasted. Whereas Syracuse would normally receive about 2 inches in June, only 0.3 inches has fallen.
Boston Globe (Mass.), 6-16-2020
Affected Area: Northeast
The Northeast has been particularly dry in June, with Boston receiving just 49 percent of its normal precipitation between June 1 and June 15. The driest city in the Northeast was Concord, New Hampshire, which received just 6 percent of its normal precipitation.
The Weather Channel (Atlanta, Ga.), 6-12-2020
Affected Area: U.S.
Hot, dry conditions in the Southwest and central U.S. led to the development of flash drought in the Southern Plains.
International
Earth Observatory (Greenbelt, Md.), 7-29-2020
Affected Area: South America
A stretch of warm weather and drought in southern Brazil, Paraguay and northern Argentina have lowered the Paraná River to its lowest point in decades, hindering shipping and increasing fire activity.
Hurriyet Daily News (Turkey), 7-28-2020
Affected Area: Turkey
After a dry winter and low precipitation, the Meriç River was low and wells in Turkey’s northwestern province of Edirne were running dry. Some corn farmers left their fields fallow for lack of irrigation water.
Deutsche Welle, 7-27-2020
Affected Area: Germany
Heat and drought have made Germany’s trees more susceptible to attacks by bark beetles and other insects, leading to nearly six times more trees being destroyed by insects in the past two years.
World-Grain.com (Kansas City, Mo.), 7-27-2020
Affected Area: Romania
Dry weather reduced Romania’s wheat production by an estimated 19 percent for the 2020-21 market year, lowering the harvest to 7 million tons.
World-Grain.com (Kansas City, Mo.), 7-23-2020
Affected Area: Bulgaria
Dry weather in Bulgaria lowered wheat and barley yields and caused inconsistent quality.
Mitigation
The San Diego Union-Tribune (Calif.), 11-18-2019
Affected Area: Sierra Nevada, California
In the Sierra Nevada near Lake Tahoe, drought, bark beetles and climate change have killed many sugar pines, but some have withstood the siege. Scientists were planting thousands of seedlings descended from the surviving trees, hoping that they possess genes that allow them to endure adverse conditions.
Bozeman Daily Chronicle (Mont.), 8-21-2019
Affected Area: Bozeman, Montana
Bozeman commissioners approved a water rate increase with the goal of reducing waste during drought. Additional fees will also be implemented if a drought is declared to curb water use. The more water used and the higher the drought stage, the higher water rates will be.
Yakima Herald (Wash.), 7-31-2019
Affected Area: Washington State
Farmers in the Roza Irrigation District have found ways to be more efficient with the water supplies they got, given the 67 percent allocation, due to the drought emergency. Many use drip irrigation systems. Some farmers coordinated their water use to avoid fluctuations in canal levels that might cause others to lose water access for a while. Another farmer selected his crops so that they do not all need water at the same time during the growing season.
Wyoming Public Media (Laramie, Wyo.), 1-9-2019
Affected Area: Wyoming
Wyoming lawmakers were preparing for drought by looking at the potential construction of a West Fork dam project in southern Carbon County, the expansion of Big Sandy Reservoir in western Wyoming, as well as cloud-seeding in two mountain ranges on the Wyoming-Colorado border to increase rainfall.
Arizona Republic, AZCentral.com & KPNX-TV NBC 12 Phoenix, 10-4-2018
Affected Area: Arizona
Arizona fire officials felt good about their decision to close state and federal forests starting in May when the fire danger was unusually high, due to an historically dry winter, intense drought and an abundance of dry grasses ready to burn. In 2018, only 156,317 acres of state land burned, compared to 412,746 acres in 2017. Forests reopened in July after the monsoon season began.
Plants & Wildlife
The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel (Colo.), 7-24-2020
Affected Area: Colorado
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is requesting water releases from high-country reservoirs to increase flows in the Colorado River upstream of the Gunnison River confluence to aid endangered fish. Flow conditions were deteriorating rapidly in the 15-Mile Reach of the Colorado River from the Gunnison confluence to the Grand Valley irrigation diversions upstream and had dropped to about 450 cubic feet per second. Median flow for this time of year at Palisade below where Grand Valley diversion occur is 1,780 cfs, according to U.S. Geological Survey streamflow data. Endangered fish in the Colorado River include — the humpback chub, bonytail, Colorado pikeminnow and razorback sucker.
National Public Radio (Washington, D.C.), 7-22-2020
Affected Area: Florida
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission voted unanimously to close the Apalachicola oyster fishery as years of drought and other factors depleted wild oyster beds. According to Florida fisheries regulators, a five year moratorium on oyster harvesting will allow wild oyster reefs time to regenerate.
CentralMaine (Augusta), 6-27-2020
Affected Area: Maine
Hot, dry weather in Maine has helped browntail moth caterpillars as drought conditions have prevented the growth of a naturally-occurring fungus that controls the caterpillar population. The caterpillar, which defoliates trees and threatens public health, was previously found in parts of Massachusetts and the Maine coast, but has been encroaching in central Maine counties.
Bangor Daily News (Maine), 6-25-2020
Affected Area: Maine
The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife warned that bears were dealing with lower food abundance, due to dry conditions, as more people called about problem bears in Washington, Aroostook and Hancock counties. If the dry weather continues, berry crops will be affected. Because some foods that bears prefer are cyclical, like beechnuts, biologists anticipated more bear complaints this year.
AZ Central (Phoenix), 6-18-2020
Affected Area: Sonoran Desert in southwest Arizona
Saguaro cactuses in the Sonoran Desert in southwest Arizona and extreme southeast California were reproducing less and were beginning to migrate as temperatures rises. In a 2018 report, the National Park Service stated that climate change, drought, invasive plants and certain activities, such as woodcutting and cattle grazing, have reduced the number of seedlings to replace older cactuses. Seedlings and juvenile cactuses have been declining since the 1990s.
Relief, Response, & Restrictions
New York State Governor, 7-28-2020
Affected Area: New York
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced the state issued a Drought Watch for four regions, including Long Island, the Upper Hudson/Mohawk area, the Adirondacks, and the Great Lakes/St. Lawrence area. New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Basil Seggos issued the watch after consulting with experts from the State Drought Management Task Force. Voluntary water conservation was recommended.
Penobscot Bay Pilot (Maine), 7-9-2020
Affected Area: Maine
Maine’s Drought Task Force met again on July 9 and was concerned about the severe drought in the northern reaches of the state. Impacts in the north included damage to crops, such as hay, potatoes, wheat and barley, and an increase in invasive species, stemming from the lack of rain.
The Salina Post (Kan.), 7-6-2020
Affected Area: Kansas
Kansas Gov. Kelly issued drought declarations for most of Kansas on July 6, apart from a few counties in central and northeast parts of the state. Of the 105 counties, 13 were in emergency status, 18 were in warning status and 44 were in a watch status.
KTVZ-TV Newschannel 21 (Bend, Ore.), 7-1-2020
Affected Area: Oregon
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown signed a drought emergency declaration for seven additional counties, due to very low water supplies and hot, dry conditions. Those seven counties were Crook, Deschutes, Douglas, Gilliam, Jefferson, Josephine and Wasco. She previously signed declarations for Coos, Curry, Jackson and Klamath counties.
NBC10 Boston (Mass.), 6-26-2020
Affected Area: Massachusetts
A Level 2 Significant Drought was declared for most of Massachusetts, including the Connecticut River Valley, Western, Central, and Northeast regions, due to abnormal heat and scarce rain since May.
Research
Phys.org, 5-12-2020
Affected Area: Upper Missouri River Basin
The 2000-2010 drought in the Upper Missouri River Basin was the driest in the past 1,200 years, according to a large team of researchers, who consulted a network of databases and other resources describing conditions over the past 2,000 years. Some of the information used to reach their conclusion was tree ring data for many parts of the Missouri River Basin.
UPI, 2-12-2020
Affected Area:
Amorphous silica exponentially increases the ability of soil to retain water for plant use, found researchers from the University of Bayreuth and the Leibniz Center for Agricultural Landscape Research in Germany.
University of Arizona (Tucson), 1-13-2020
Affected Area: California
Severe drought simultaneously affecting regions that supply water to Southern California have happened nearly six times per century on average since 1500, according to a study done by the University of Arizona.
Yahoo! Finance, 10-30-2019
Affected Area:
Controlled drought stress increases the concentrations of major cannabinoids tetrahydrocannabinol acid and cannabidiolic acid by 12 percent and 13 percent, respectively in cannabis plants. The yields of certain cannabinoids was considerably higher for the drought stressed plants, too.
National Geographic, 7-24-2019
Affected Area: Southwestern U.S.
Researchers from the University of Arizona found that three events typically came together when a megadrought occurred, those being cooling water temperatures in the Pacific Ocean, warming water in the Atlantic Ocean and radiative forcing.
Society & Public Health
KLTV ABC (Tyler, Texas), 7-28-2020
Affected Area: Texas
East Texas trees killed by drought in 2011 were dropping branches, taking down power lines and causing property damage.
WKRN News 2 (Nashville, Tenn.), 10-1-2019
Affected Area: Middle Tennessee
People in Middle Tennessee have noticed allergy symptoms ramping up in the last couple of months. While ample rainfall earlier in the year led to an earlier bloom, the dry weather recently has meant more ragweed pollen. Little rain has fallen to remove the pollen from the air.
The Sumter Item (S.C.), 6-11-2019
Affected Area: Central South Carolina
More than a dozen Sumter County farmers gathered on June 3 to pray for rain to relieve the drought and sustain their crops. In subsequent days, rain fell.
Business Insider, 2-4-2019
Affected Area: Northern California
Excessive groundwater pumping in California has left Arbuckle, northwest of Sacramento, sinking more than two feet in the past nine years, according to a survey performed by the California Department of Water Resources.
Summit Daily News (Breckenridge-Dillon, Colo.), 10-11-2018
Affected Area: Colorado
The remains of railroad facilities at Dickey have emerged from the receding waters of Lake Dillon in Summit County. Some of the visible artifacts were building foundations, pieces of bottles, rail spikes, connectors, coal chunks and the cement foundation of the water tower.
Tourism & Recreation
Oswego County Today (Fulton, N.Y.), 7-31-2020
Affected Area: New York
The Salmon River whitewater release scheduled for Aug. 1 and 2 was cancelled due to low water levels on the Upper Salmon River Reservoir and ongoing drought.
Bring Me the News (Edina, Minn.), 6-11-2020
Affected Area: Minnesota
The Kandiyohi County Sheriff’s Office warned about low water levels in central Minnesota lakes after several residents reported damaging their boats on rocks and objects just below the water’s surface. Boaters were urged to not get too close to shore and to use electronic GPS and depth gauge systems to avoid shallow areas.
Ashland Tidings (Ore.), 6-10-2020
Affected Area: Oregon
Size restrictions and limits on rainbow trout, bass and all other fish were lifted at Howard Prairie Lake since the lake was at 24 percent of capacity and was expected to fall low enough to kill the fish.
Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, 4-30-2020
Affected Area: Utah
The Utah Wildlife Board approved a decrease in the number of general-season and antlerless deer permits for the 2020 hunting season after drought in past years reduced the deer population. Southern and northern parts of the state saw the biggest deer loss.
KSL.com (Salt Lake City, Utah), 3-30-2020
Affected Area: Utah
Biologists with the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources recommended 9,175 fewer deer hunting permits for fall 2020 after drought reduced the deer population in past years.
Water Supply & Quality
New Hampshire Public Radio (Concord, N.H.), 7-30-2020
Affected Area: New Hampshire
Roughly 130 water systems in New Hampshire have water use restrictions, with 94 of those being mandatory, according to the Director of the Water Division for the state’s Department of Environmental Services. Weather trends indicated the likelihood of continued heat and dry conditions in the southern part of the state.
Foothills Sun Gazette (Exeter, Calif.), 7-29-2020
Affected Area: California
The Visalia City Council met on July 20 and unanimously approved moving from Stage 1 to Stage 3 water conservation as the city’s groundwater level sank 7 feet since April.
Visalia entered Stage 1 of its water ordinance in August 2017, and was in Stage 2 for the previous year and a half.
Albuquerque Journal (N.M.), 7-26-2020
Affected Area: New Mexico
Much of the Rio Grande River south of Albuquerque was dry and littered with dead fish. At Embudo in northern New Mexico, the Rio Grande was flowing at 188 cubic feet per second, less than half of normal. Heron, El Vado and Abiquiú lakes were all just above 30% of their average storage amount.
Albuquerque Journal (N.M.), 7-18-2020
Affected Area: New Mexico
Texas and Colorado gave the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District and the state of New Mexico permission to access up to 38,000 acre-feet of water stored in El Vado Reservoir under the Rio Grande Compact agreement. Large stretches of the river have already run dry, due to low runoff, heat and little rain. The irrigation district’s supply for the Middle Rio Grande valley would have ended, but with the emergency water, farmers and endangered species will benefit from the water releases.
Maui News (Wailuku, Hawaii), 7-18-2020
Affected Area: Hawaii
The Maui Department of Water Supply requested that customers in the Upcountry and West Maui areas be frugal with water, due to low rainfall.