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
KTRE-TV ABC 9 (Pollok, Texas), 3-5-2021
Affected Area: Texas
Dry conditions through the 2020 growing season in Texas limited overall yields, and recent cold weather forced producers to feed more. Forages in most of the state were becoming scarcer as a lot of hay comes from drought-affected areas in Colorado, New Mexico, Kansas and Oklahoma.
AgAlert (Sacramento, Calif.), 3-3-2021
Affected Area: California
California farmers were responding to the meager allocation announcements and were planning accordingly. In the Huron area, one farmer decided that he will not plant land where he lacks a contract for crops. A Los Banos area farmer will plant fewer acres of annual crops and enact conservation measures like deficit irrigation of alfalfa and cut wheat early for silage.
Ag Journal (La Junta, Colo.), 3-3-2021
Affected Area: Central Plains
The 2021 winter has been difficult for wheat in Kansas, Nebraska and Colorado as historically low temperatures and drought jeopardized new crop yield potential. In the Great Plains, sustained temperatures below 10 degrees were low enough long enough to cause serious concern about the crop’s ability to survive dormancy.
DTN - The Progressive Farmer (Burnsville, Minn.), 2-25-2021
Affected Area: Southern Great Plains
Winter wheat conditions were already deteriorating prior to the arctic temperatures, due to drought. Oklahoma's current USDA crop condition rating of 48% good to excellent fell 13 points since January. Kansas wheat, which endured temperatures as low as -19 degrees, was ranked at just 40% good to excellent, down 5 points from last year. Nebraska wheat conditions fell drastically, with only 30% rated good to excellent, down from 70% last year. Soil moisture was very low in Texas, which may have led to damage to more developed wheat.
Late emerging fields, due to lack of soil moisture in the fall, may be less developed and less able to withstand the cold. Such fields probably account for about 40% of wheat fields in north-central Kansas and 20% to 30% in western Kansas, estimated a wheat and forage Extension specialist with Kansas State University.
The Sacramento Bee (Calif.), 2-23-2021
Affected Area: California
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation announced its initial allocation of 5% for the Central Valley Project. The figure will be updated if more rain and snow fall to increase the allocation. The CVP serves farm irrigation districts in the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys.
In December, the State Water Project announced an initial allocation of 10%.
Business & Industry
ABC 4 (Salt Lake City, Utah), 2-2-2021
Affected Area: Utah
The lack of snow in the Salt Lake City area has slashed a landscaping business’ winter revenue by 25 percent because there were few snow removals needed as this winter was on track to be one of the driest on record.
Tampa Bay Times (Fla.), 12-17-2020
Affected Area: Florida
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission approved the suspension of wild oyster harvesting in Apalachicola Bay for five years to allow the bay’s collapsed fishery to recover from drought, overharvesting and, in the opinion of Florida officials, excessive water use by Georgia.
DTN The Progressive Farmer (Burnsville, Minn.), 10-5-2020
Affected Area: Mississippi River
The level of the Mississippi River has been falling during the past few months. South of St. Louis, barge drafts of 12 feet were the norm, but Ceres Barge Line opted to cut their drafts to 10 feet, 6 inches as of Oct. 1. The change will cost shippers more money as it will require more barges to transport the same amount of grain downriver.
WMUR-TV ABC 9 Manchester (N.H.), 9-14-2020
Affected Area: New Hampshire
As New Hampshire’s drought persisted, more homeowners were finding that their wells had run dry. One well drilling company had more than 100 customers on a waiting list, needing a bedrock well drilled to restore the water supply for homes. Such wells often cost $10,000 to $12,000.
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.
Energy
Minot Daily News (N.D.), 10-7-2020
Affected Area: North Dakota
As precipitation remained well below normal, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers again lowered the projected Feb. 28, 2021 water level for Lake Sakakawea, for the fourth consecutive month of declining water level projections. While projections have been lower recently, the latest projection of 30.2 million acre-feet of water remains 117 percent of the 25.8 maf of average for the upper Missouri River Basin.
Six mainstem power plants generated 875 million kilowatts of electricity in September, down from the average of 905 million kWh.
The San Jose Mercury News (Calif.), 8-10-2020
Affected Area: California
The 2012-16 drought in California reduced water supplies, which led to a decrease in hydropower production. The loss in electricity generation cost PG&E and other California utilities roughly $5.5 billion, according to a study done by researchers at North Carolina State University. Much of the shortfall in hydropower production was made up by natural gas, a more expensive form of energy production. The lost hydropower production cost utilities $1.5 billion and the higher demand for electricity amounted to nearly $4 billion.
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.
Fire
NewsDakota.com (Valley City, N.D.), 3-2-2021
Affected Area: North Dakota
Dry, warm conditions brought an early start to the wildfire season in North Dakota. Numerous counties had burn bans, including Dunn, Golden Valley, Mercer, Oliver and Stutsman. Severe drought affected 68% of the state, an increase of 10% from two weeks ago.
KOLD (Tucson, Ariz.), 2-26-2021
Affected Area: Arizona
Firefighters in southern Arizona have already begun battling wildfires in recent days, increasing worries about the upcoming fire season. Severe drought conditions continue after last summer’s nearly absent monsoon.
Wyoming News (Cheyenne), 2-18-2021
Affected Area: Wyoming
Drought conditions in Wyoming could lead to an active wildfire season, warned a warning coordination meteorologist at the NWS’s Riverton office. This is the worst drought since 2012-13, during which about 500,000 acres burned and cost $100 million to contain.
KOAA News (Colorado Springs, Colo.), 1-14-2021
Affected Area: Colorado
Concern for the 2021 fire season in Colorado was rising as bountiful snow was needed, but not expected, amid a La Niña winter. The dry conditions, combined with invasive insects like bark beetles, continued to kill trees and create more fuel.
Bangor Daily News (Maine), 12-10-2020
Affected Area: Maine
Maine’s annual wildfire total in 2020 was the highest in 35 years as 1,150 fires burned 1,030 acres. Many of the fires stemmed from campfires that spread or were not properly extinguished. The state’s chief forest ranger blamed drought for being the dominant factor in the increased wildfire activity.
General Awareness
USA Today, 3-4-2021
Affected Area: Western U.S.
Ninety percent of the West was either abnormally dry or in drought, for one of the highest percentages in the past 20 years.
"By definition, we are approaching what is defined as a megadrought, where conditions have been that way for at least two decades," said climatologist Brian Fuchs of the National Drought Mitigation Center.
The Colorado Sun (Denver), 3-4-2021
Affected Area: Colorado
A combination of factors, including early snowmelt in 2020, a disappointing monsoon, a warm dry fall and below normal winter snowpack left 98.57% of Colorado in drought. The state activated the agricultural and municipal parts of its drought contingency plan in 2020.
The Weather Channel (Atlanta, Ga.), 2-22-2021
Affected Area: California
Precipitation in California since the start of the water year on Oct. 1 has been considerably lower than normal, allowing drought to expand across the state. Some cities received less than half of their normal precipitation since Oct. 1, including San Francisco, Sacramento, Los Angeles and San Diego.
A late January storm deepened the snowpack in the Sierra Nevada, but snow water equivalents have since decreased, according to the California Department of Water Resources.
KOAA News (Colorado Springs, Colo.), 2-19-2021
Affected Area: Colorado
Several snow storms brought enough powder to ease drought in parts of Colorado, but more moisture is needed to ease the entrenched drought conditions.
Associated Press, 2-4-2021
Affected Area: California
The late January storm improved drought conditions in large swathes of California. The second Sierra snowpack survey revealed that the water content was 70 percent of average to date and 45 percent of the April 1 average.
International
The Kathmandu Post (Nepal), 3-5-2021
Affected Area: Nepal
Total rainfall in Nepal was 25% of normal this winter, following a dry post-monsoon season in October and November, when rainfall was 25.6% of average.
The Manila Times (Philippines), 3-5-2021
Affected Area: Taiwan
Lingering drought meant roughly 1.34 million homes in central and northern Taiwan were likely to experience reduced water pressure at the tap as a water conservation measure.
Bloomberg, 3-4-2021
Affected Area: Tunisia
Citizens of Tunisia are urged to pray for rain as worries increase about a second year of drought in parts of North Africa. A dry stretch from January through mid-March 2020 in Tunisia slashed the grain harvest by 35%, leading to import about a third more grain than usual. Algeria has been dry since mid-January.
Stuff.co.nz (New Zealand), 3-1-2021
Affected Area: New Zealand
Auckland was slowly recovering from drought in 2020, the worst drought in its history, after a dry December and January. Reservoirs in the Hunua and Waitakere ranges were at 58% capacity as of March 1, which is 23% below normal levels.
Interfax (London), 2-25-2021
Affected Area: Crimea
Severe drought on the Crimean Peninsula meant water rationing for the resort town of Alushta with water being available ten hours per day. The cities of Simferopol and Yalta have been rationing water for months.
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
FOX21News.com (Colorado Springs, Colo.), 2-18-2021
Affected Area: Colorado
Spruce beetles continued to devastate Colorado’s trees in 2020 as severe drought weakened the trees and aided the spread of beetle infestations, which affect about 80 percent of state forests. The beetle-killed trees provide more fuel for wildfires, according to foresters.
KJZZ (Tempe, Ariz.), 2-16-2021
Affected Area: Arizona
Drought and heat killed many saguaro cacti at Phoenix’s Desert Botanical Garden last summer, with some of the saguaros thought to be 100 years old. The 2020 monsoon brought little rain, and temperatures remained above 90 degrees many nights, giving the cacti no reprieve. Agaves suffered and perished too.
KNAU Arizona Public Radio (Flagstaff, Ariz.), 1-22-2021
Affected Area: Arizona
Members of the Arizona Elk Society, a wildlife conservation organization, have been caring for wildlife by refilling natural ponds and stock tanks as many have gone dry amid the intense drought.
KXAN.com (Austin, Texas), 1-21-2021
Affected Area: Texas
Drought limited the production of Ashe Juniper berries in the Southwest. The American Robin, or Turdus Migratorius, prefers Ashe Juniper berries and migrated to central Texas, where the berries could be found.
The Journal (Cortez, Colo.), 1-14-2021
Affected Area: Colorado
The low flow of the Animas River prompted Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s fish hatchery in Durango to stock roughly 28,000 mature rainbow trout early. While the flow of the Animas River would typically be 1,000 gallons per minute, only 700 gallons per minute were flowing through the hatchery, due to drought. The hatchery was at peak capacity, holding about one million fish.
Relief, Response, & Restrictions
The Providence Journal (R.I.), 2-12-2021
Affected Area: Rhode Island
Gov. Gina Raimondo lifted the drought advisory issued on Sept. 17 as the state’s Drought Advisory Committee concluded on Feb. 9 that conditions warranted lifting the advisory. Precipitation and groundwater levels have returned to normal statewide.
KSL.com (Salt Lake City, Utah), 2-10-2021
Affected Area: Utah
Utah officials were considering the creation of a new entity to protect Utah’s share of the Colorado River. The Colorado River Amendments, HB297, would set up the Colorado River Authority of Utah with $9 million in one-time money and $600,000 of ongoing money. Other states in the Colorado River basin have similar entities to protect their interests in the river. Some critics of the bill voiced their opposition.
Gant News (Clearfield, Pa.), 2-4-2021
Affected Area: Pennsylvania
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection allowed three counties—Centre, Clearfield, and Clinton—to return to normal status. Hydrologic conditions were deemed normal statewide.
Insurance Journal (San Diego, Calif.), 2-3-2021
Affected Area: Texas
Gov. Greg Abbott issued a disaster declaration for numerous west and southwest Texas counties as exceptional drought and wildfire threat jeopardized public health, property and the economy.
Maui Now (Wailuku, Hawaii), 1-27-2021
Affected Area: Hawaii
Gov. David Ige issued an emergency proclamation on Jan. 27 declaring the County of Maui, which has endured drought conditions since March 2019, a disaster area. The proclamation allows the state to provide relief from disaster damages, losses, suffering caused by disaster, and to protect the health, safety and welfare of the people.
Research
Science News (Washington, D.C.), 12-8-2020
Affected Area: New Mexico
Research into ice cores at El Malpais National Monument in western New Mexico indicated that ancestral Puebloans used fire to melt ice from lava tubes during drought.
Science Magazine, 10-20-2020
Affected Area: Great Plains
Dust storms on the Great Plains have become more frequent and more intense in the past 20 years, due to more frequent drought and the expansion of croplands. Research from the University of Utah indicates that the region may be nearing a tipping point at which Dust Bowl conditions could return.
The University of California Santa Barbara Current, 10-12-2020
Affected Area:
Repeated droughts are generally increasingly detrimental to forests, found researchers from UC Santa Barbara, who noted two clear findings. Firstly, trees seem to become more vulnerable to stress after multiple droughts. Secondly, conifers have different vascular systems than broadleaf trees, and conifers may sustain more damage in an initial drought and be less able to withstand subsequent droughts, compared to broadleaf trees.
KSL.com (Salt Lake City, Utah), 10-11-2020
Affected Area:
Utah State University researchers were gathering information from Twitter to monitor drought using a ‘sentiment analyzer’ model and found it to be useful. The drought tracker could fill in gaps between traditional weather stations and give researchers a more immediate picture of drought conditions.
YubaNet (Calif.), 9-24-2020
Affected Area:
Researchers have identified a new kind of “landfalling drought” that begins over the ocean before moving onto land, and which can cause larger, drier conditions than other droughts.
Society & Public Health
UCLA Newsroom (Calif.), 2-16-2021
Affected Area: California
Water restrictions in California, which limited lawn watering, also reduced the number of shallow pools of water on lawns, thereby reducing spread of the mosquito-borne West Nile virus, according to research from UCLA and three other universities. The number of mosquitoes was reduced by 44 percent in Los Angeles County and 39 percent in Orange County, thanks to the water restrictions, which extended from 2012 through 2016 amid the statewide drought.
The Colorado Sun (Denver), 12-6-2020
Affected Area: Colorado
The Kiowa County D4 splotch has taken a toll on the mental health of the people residing within its bounds. Crops hardly grew higher than work boots, bindweed stopped growing, and rain clouds passed by without offering any relief.
News Center Maine (Portland), 10-26-2020
Affected Area: Maine
Fewer cases of tick-borne illnesses were reported in Maine this year as drought led to less tick activity. Just 822 cases of Lyme disease were recorded in Maine, compared to more than 2,000 cases in 2019. Two other tick-borne illnesses, anaplasmosis and babesiosis, were also low, with only 401 cases, in comparison with 823 cases in 2019.
WMTW Portland (Maine), 9-14-2020
Affected Area: Maine
The preliminary count of cases of Lyme disease through Sept. 7 was 626, far below the 2,167 cases reported in 2019. There were similarly fewer cases of anaplasmosis and babesiosis, also tick-borne diseases. Fewer mosquitoes were caught in traps over the summer.
Other parts of New England, such as Vermont and New Hampshire, were also finding fewer ticks and mosquitoes. In Vermont, insect counts were down about 42 percent, compared to 2019. No cases of West Nile virus or Eastern equine encephalitis were reported in Maine or Vermont so far in 2020.
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.
Tourism & Recreation
KOB (Albuquerque, N.M.), 1-11-2021
Affected Area: New Mexico
Much of Ski Santa Fe’s terrain was still closed, due to lack of snow. The stream that supplies water for snowmaking was flowing slowly and not providing enough to make much snow.
National Parks Traveler (Park City, Utah), 12-18-2020
Affected Area: Texas
The backcountry area around Guadalupe Peak in Guadalupe Mountains National Park was closed from Dec. 20 through Jan. 4, due to continued drought. Resource damage and illegal fire violations were occurring at backcountry sites, prompting park authorities to close the area to backcountry camping. Fire restrictions took effect in the park on Nov. 18.
Summit Daily (Frisco, Colo.), 12-14-2020
Affected Area: Colorado
While the Upper Colorado River Basin was at 70 percent of its normal snow water equivalent, other locations in western Colorado were not faring as well. The warm, dry autumn has made it difficult for ski areas to open additional terrain with artificial or natural snow.
Raccoon Valley Radio (Perry, Iowa), 11-3-2020
Affected Area: Iowa
Pheasant counts were up 18 percent across Iowa, but counts were 8 percent lower in the parched west central region of the state.
Herald (Hagerstown, Md.), 10-18-2020
Affected Area: West Virginia
Some West Virginia streams were too low to be stocked with fish, leading the state Division of Natural Resources stocking crews to focus more on stocking lakes this fall.
Water Supply & Quality
MaineBiz (Portland, Maine), 3-5-2021
Affected Area: Maine
The Maine River Flow Advisory Commission met on March 4 and determined that the state could be headed toward another drought as stream flow and groundwater conditions were low to below normal.
Yankton Daily Press & Dakotan (S.D.), 3-4-2021
Affected Area: Missouri River Basin
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers may consider water conservation measures in the Missouri River Basin later in the year if dry conditions persist or worsen. Reservoir storage in early March was very good in terms of flood control and flow support for navigation, but February runoff in the upper Basin was 0.8 million acre-feet, 70% of average. The 2021 calendar year runoff forecast for the upper Basin is 21.8 MAF, 84% of average. Snowpack on the plains is nearly non-existent, particularly in Montana and the Dakotas, and soils are extremely dry.
The Mercury News (Calif.), 3-2-2021
Affected Area: California
The most recent snow survey at Phillips Station revealed 61% of the historical average as California endures its second consecutive dry winter. Many water agencies were expected to make decisions on needed water conservation measures in late March or early April.
Utah Public Radio (Logan, Utah), 3-1-2021
Affected Area: Utah
Extremely low soil moisture in Utah is expected to reduce runoff to well below average, even if the snowpack were to reach normal by early April. Streamflow in most of Utah is below normal. Based on the current conditions at Lake Powell, the Colorado River Basin Forecast Center is predicting the driest flow on record in April.
Minot Daily News (N.D.), 2-26-2021
Affected Area: North Dakota
The Souris River, which loops down into North Dakota from Canada, has had little or no flow for several months. Lake Darling, northwest of Minot, was at 1,595.42 feet, more than a half foot below its winter operating level and will not likely achieve 1,597 feet, the preferred summer operating level.