http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/06/us/large-swath-of-us-remains-parched-despite-storm.html?ref=weather
Wide Area of Nation Still Parched After Storm
By JOHN ELIGON
Published: September 5, 2012
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The remnants of Hurricane Isaac that blew through the middle of the country over the weekend softened the worst drought in decades in some areas, but a large portion of the nation remains desiccated with ponds still too shallow to water cattle, fields too dusty for feeding and crops beyond the point of salvage, meteorologists and agriculture experts said Wednesday.
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Conditions have, in fact, worsened in some rain-starved regions untouched by the hurricane’s gray clouds, meteorologists said.
When the government’s drought forecasts are released Thursday morning, they will most likely show that the worst of the drought has shifted slightly west, to the Central Plains, stretching from the bottom of South Dakota to North Texas.
“Isaac’s rains were like Chapter 1 in the drought relief book,” said David Miskus, a meteorologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s climate prediction center. “We still need a lot more rain to go here to really eliminate this drought.”
Thick, swirling, gray bands from Hurricane Isaac drenched broad areas of crop country, from Arkansas through Missouri to Illinois, with two to eight inches of rain. The rain brought much needed moisture to rock-hard soil, a welcome development for farmers planting wheat in the coming weeks. Some pastures have started to green in the region and the pods on some soybean plants have spruced up.
Still, a large majority of the nation’s farmland remains parched.
In Illinois, 72 percent of pastures were in poor to very poor condition this week, compared with 90 percent a week earlier, according to the United States Department of Agriculture. The percentage of pastures in poor to very poor condition in Arkansas dropped 12 points this week to 72 percent. But 99 percent of Missouri’s pastures remained in poor to very poor condition, despite the weekend rain.
The percentage of corn rated poor to very poor in 18 major corn-producing states stayed level at 52, which is not surprising given that much of the nation’s corn crop had been destroyed before the weekend’s rains.
The rains were “too late to bring much improvement for summer crops,” said Brad Rippey, a meteorologist with the Agriculture Department. “We’re kind of looking ahead now to winter wheat planting.”
The moistened soil will help wheat germinate when it is planted, agriculture experts said.
States like Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, South Dakota and Oklahoma saw very little rain from the hurricane, and with hot temperatures forecast this week, conditions could get even worse, meteorologists said. Much of these areas will remain or be upgraded to extreme and exceptional drought, Mr. Miskus said.
The stream flow — a measure of the water level in streams — returned to normal this week in many parts of Missouri, Arkansas, Indiana and Illinois, after being rated below or much below regular levels in July, according to the United States Geological Survey.
While parts of Arkansas saw up to a foot of rain, the most severely affected drought areas in the northern tier did not get as much moisture, said Zach Taylor of the state’s Department of Agriculture. Here and there, Mr. Taylor said, the rain will allow some hay to grow, providing crucial food supply for cattle. But without more rain soon, the shortage will persist, he said.
“It didn’t bring us anywhere back to where we needed to be,” he said of the weekend’s rain.
The benefit of the rain may be felt less in the ground or in ponds than in people’s heads, said Jasper Grant, the acting executive director for the Farm Service Agency in Missouri.
“It’s helped the mind-set of the producer,” he said. “It’s helped them feel like there is some rainfall out there.”
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