Despite 200% Of Normal Precipitation, Southwest Remains In Exceptional Drought

Torrential rains and flooding in the southwest have no impact on the Ministry of Truth permanent drought.ScreenHunter_176 Jul. 25 07.50

US Drought Monitor

ScreenHunter_175 Jul. 25 07.49

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17 Responses to Despite 200% Of Normal Precipitation, Southwest Remains In Exceptional Drought

  1. shazaam says:

    I’ve wondered about that one. It seems that exceptional drought is only relieved by flooding. Nothing else can alleviate the dryness.

    When the snow-melt was threatening to flood the rivers, South Dakota lost it’s exceptional drought status. If that’s what it takes, what’s the point of the drought index?

    • gator69 says:

      Actually they would likely categorize a flood as ‘excessive runoff’, claiming it did not penetrate to the water table.

  2. David says:

    Coming from a farming family I have personally seen 4 inches of rain with no runoff do very little for the crops. They will green up a little but it takes more than one good rain event to alleviate drought, However a good turd floater is a start.

    • Many of these places received more than 1/3 of their average annual rainfall last week.

      • David says:

        I know and understand that 4 inches in North Texas is 1/7 of an annual total but if it is truly dry I have seen rains like that and the next day the ground is dry like it didn’t happen. I am saying a downpour can help and should take you down a notch or 2 but it will not end a drought. It takes time to get into one and it takes time to get out kind of like credit card debt. I will agree we have had a wet summer on the front range in places. You also got much more snow in Fort Collins than we got in Colorado Springs. We got maybe a foot all winter instead of close to 4 feet.

        • Boulder had four feet of snow in April alone

        • David says:

          Steve I realise that Boulder got 4 feet of snow I saw it in the news but a lot of areas are dry. Even the weeds were not growing in the vacant lots till a few weeks ago in Colorado Springs. That was the old way of determing drought if the native plants were dying not the transplants.

          I also agree with you that the Fort Collins Greely area is not in drought. I also would only classify the Springs as mild drought. However droughts are not solved with one heavy rain season it takes time to rebuild soil moisture. Sometimes in Texas it took 2-3 years of above normal to get deep soil moisture back to normal after a severe drought.

        • The point is that they are calling it “exceptional drought” which is complete BS.

  3. John B., M.D. says:

    Steve – You are aware of the flash flooding in Arizona last week? The areas are still in drought.

  4. Mike D says:

    Turns out you can only report drought effects at their website. There’s no way to report something like high lake levels, well watered plants, excess greenery or lush vegetation. Well I guess you could report it, but as they’re request is “Please provide a Description of how drought is affecting you, your livelihood, your activities, etc.”, it seems they’re only interested in one side of the situation and not the complete view of the situation.

    http://public.droughtreporter.unl.edu/submitreport/reporttoimpact.aspx

    • John B., M.D. says:

      Different website.

      That said, it is still a methodological flaw.

      • Mike D says:

        Oh. I was looking for their methodology so hit the “About the DIR” which I thought was about that website’s info since it is a button. Turns out the button I was looking for was the button two spots over. But in between is a NOAA website link, so it is a poorly designed website.

        Anyway, I’m surprised to find we’re having a “Drought – Severe” in California. If anyone had asked, I’d have said seems like a normal year.

  5. It is the desert southwest, what does everybody expect? I think everybody is spoiled rotten.

  6. Andy DC says:

    A desert is normally dry. Is that shocking news?

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