Drought

Continued dry conditions with lower day and night temps. Harvest continuing with garbanzo beans which are a very dusty crop this harvest. Air quality continues to be poor but increasing with decrease in forest fire activity. A bit more rain would clear the air. Leaf drop from dry conditions heavy and premature leaf coloring. Many plants will be stressed going into dormancy due to low precip this summer. CoCoRaHS Report from Station #Palouse 3.2 SSW on 9/17/2018

The normal fall dry period has apparently started with warm and breezy days, cool nights with low RH. Vegetation has started changing color and hardening off. Roads and trails dusty, stock tanks and small ponds mostly all dry, stream flows all appear below normal - a bit unusual for this time of year. CoCoRaHS Report from Station #Pinetop-Lakeside 4.0 ESE on 9/16/2018

No precipitation has fallen in the past 3 weeks, but it has been beautiful but chilly. Still have not had any precipitation since June, and there is no foreseeable precipitation in the near future. Due to the lack of rain, grass has started to turn brown and if it was already browned, the brown is turning darker shades. We also have had a lot of stratus and fog near the coast that has been burning off in the late morning to afternoon and then rolling back in in the evening. Leaves are falling off trees which is indicating that fall is near. I hypothesize that rain will fall within the next month and a half, so I didn't see these dry conditions lasting much longer. Needless to say, we better enjoy the brisk weather while we can because here soon, rainy season will arrive. I wanted to take a moment to say that I've been very busy with my University work so I haven't been able to provide bi-weekly reports. I'll try to do every 2 weeks but if not, it may have to be every three. Thank you for your time, and I hope you all have a good day! CoCoRaHS Report from Station #Eureka 4.5 S on 9/16/2018

Pasture grasses are drying up’ nearby stream is low, but still flowing - barely. Aspen leaves turning yellow at this elevation of 7800 ft, 2 weeks early. Elk are coming through, bugling for past 10 days. CoCoRaHS Report from Station #Evergreen 4.2 SSE on 9/16/2018

Dry, dry and dry. Very little rain now for 7 weeks and very low RH during the day. Wildfire ignited by dry lightning in foothills this week. Irrigation water nearly dried up on our ditch. Vegetation dry. Horse corrals are deep in dust. But garden likes the September warmth CoCoRaHS Report from Station #FCL 2.2 NW on 9/16/2018

No measurable rain during last 10 days, soil is continuing to dry out. Vegetables and fruit trees need water at least weekly, unusual for this season. Creeks haven't changed since last report, water in nearby stock tanks is low and diminishing, shallow tanks are dry. CoCoRaHS Report from Station #Hillsboro 0.3 WSW on 9/16/2018

While I have recorded 0.48 of an inch this week (and month) over 3 days it has barley settled the dust. Even so, temperatures back in the 70's has us feeling like autumn. The leafs on deciduous trees are curling rather than turning to fall colors. Water levels in streams remain very low. Our agricultural weekly paper reported that the Drought Monitor has labelled us as in "extreme drought." CoCoRaHS Report from Station #Shedd 1.9 NW on 9/16/2018

The best way to measure how dry we were and why I still say we are mildly dry is...there has been NO runoff into ponds yet. The grass has freshened up and has broken summer dormancy but the growth is retarded and not nearly what it usually is this time of year. Cattlemen around the area are baling anything they can get, including cruddy weedy patches. Dirt and outdoor construction continues with no interruption. Rivers are staying in their banks, only running high due to Corp of Engineers management curves. Many trees showing the drought stress as the day-lengths shorten. Corn harvest in full swing and a few soybeans turning also. Bulb planting is upon us. Good time to plant tulips and transplant trees. Walnuts already shutting down. Winter annuals weeds are doing good. They seem to respond more after dry summers than wet ones. Musk thistle for example are full rosettes already. Walnuts are the first to exhibit senescence anyway. Fire risk is low as we have good dews every morning now. The moderating temps are helping cattle and easy on the AC too! CoCoRaHS Report from Station #Parkville 6.2 WNW on 9/14/2018

Not sure when Drought Monitor is going to put us in D0 or D1, conditions are absolutely dry, fires in the foothills, Seaman fire, reservoir storage depleted. Come on it's a drought! CoCoRaHS Report from Station #Fort Collins 4.9 N on 9/15/2018

Range grasses and weeds are now brown, dry and crunchy underfoot. Soil is powdery and easily stirred up into dust. CoCoRaHS Report from Station #Santa Fe 7.7 WNW on 9/14/2018

Pre-Florence Edition. Soil is somewhat dry, there having been only 1.04" measurable rain over three weeks, since August 21. There were 0.47" here August 20. Poke weed is wilting, as are my garden chilies, unless they are watered by hand. I have to fill the birdbaths, as it is still summer in North Carolina. However, Hurricane Florence is hovering just off the NC/SC coast, and predictions of heavy rain are abundant. As Dr John Purvis, who taught me Applied Climatology at the University of South Carolina taught, "The Southeast gets much of its summer and fall precipitation from tropical systems." Over the next week we may measure the truth of Dr. Purvis's words here and across the Carolinas. CoCoRaHS Report from Station #Boiling Springs 1.1 N on 9/13/2018

The city of Carlsbad implemented water restrictions during warmer months to keep levels higher in the Capitan Reef Aquifer after less than an inch of rain fell between October 2017 and the summer of 2018. If water levels fell too low, stricter water restrictions would take effect. The city also aimed to secure water for the future, stated City Administrator Mike Hernandez. ABQJournal Online (N.M.), Sept. 17, 2018

Allotments for the Carlsbad Irrigation District may be less than an acre-foot in 2019 because less than an inch of rain fell between October 2017 and summer 2018. To reduce evaporation, the district was keeping most of its water in northern areas where it was cooler. ABQJournal Online (N.M.), Sept. 17, 2018

Volunteers continued to transport water to wild horses in the Sandwash Basin area until the Boone Draw fire made it too dangerous. The mustangs still made the journey across the burned land to reach the Two Bar Spring, where they knew they could find water. The horses have already begun eating vegetation they normally eat during the winter, which will make survival more challenging during the coming winter months. The Denver Post (Colo.), Sept. 17, 2018 Volunteers with the horse advocacy group Wild Horse Warriors for Sand Wash Basin began hauling water for horses in early July. Initially volunteers brought 3,400 gallons of water every other day to the horses, but have recently needed to deliver that much water daily. The land ought to support 163 to 362 horses, but the actually number of horses was between 650 and 750, leading the Bureau of Land Management to consider an emergency roundup. Steamboat Today (Steamboat Springs, Colo.), Aug. 14, 2018 The Bureau of Land Management allowed volunteers to haul water to three stock tanks for wild horses and other animals in the Sand Wash Basin in Moffat County, where about 750 horses live. A dry winter and spring meant that ponds did not refill. Aspen Times & Aspen Times Weekly (Colo.), July 10, 2018

The city of San Marcos returned to stage 1 water restrictions on Sept. 16 after rain fell over the Edwards Aquifer recharge zone. Austin American-Statesman (Texas), Sept. 13, 2018 Stage 2 drought restrictions will take effect in San Marcos on June 17 as the Edwards Aquifer continues to fall rapidly at a rate of one to two feet per day. Stage 3 restrictions could be just weeks away. San Marcos Daily Record (Texas), June 13, 2018

The Missouri Department of Natural Resources planned to award nearly $1 million to assist eight drought-affected communities in the northwest part of the state with their water systems. The eight community water systems to receive the emergency drought funding included Daviess County, King City, North Central Missouri Regional Water Commission, Grundy County, Milan, Sullivan County, Caldwell County, Cameron and Hamilton. USAgNet (Marshfield, Wis.), Sept. 14, 2018

In the U.S., 14 million acres were planted in cotton, but the estimate for harvested cotton acreage was 10.55 million acres. The divergence between planted and harvested acres has not been so large in a few years and was attributed to abandonment in Texas, due to drought, according to Warren Preston, deputy chief economist for U.S. Department of Agriculture. Texas farm bureau (Waco, Texas), Sept. 14, 2018

Along the North Fork of the Gunnison River in Gunnison County, Colorado, a fruit tree grower had no more water for 4,500 newly planted trees. The Paonia Reservoir emptied on Aug. 5, leaving him and others without water to keep their trees alive. The region needed heavy snowpack this coming winter, or water supplies will be disastrously short. ABQJournal Online (N.M.), Sept. 13, 2018

The Arkansas River was barely flowing along the Historic Arkansas Riverwalk of Pueblo, leaving the water a murky green and laden with algae. The river was so low that it was not reaching a water intake, stated Lynn Clark, executive director of the HARP Authority. To improve water quality and aesthetics, a company was hired to add chemicals to the water to treat the algae and other plant growth. A water aeration system will also be used at Lake Elizabeth to add more oxygen to the water. Pueblo Chieftain (Colo.), Sept. 14, 2018

Twelve stream gauges out of 154 in Utah registered new lows as drought dried up waterways in Utah. “This year, we’ve had many instances where we had to adjust the equipment in the streams because the flows are so low that our equipment is above the water level,” said hydrologist Cory Angeroth of the agency’s Utah Water Science Center. Salt Lake Tribune (Utah), Sept. 11, 2018