The press tells us that the current drought is historic, catastrophic and unprecedented, with about 15% of the country in severe or worse drought. (Note that much of the drought shown in the southwest has actually disappeared since this map was made – due to heavy monsoon rain.)
Eighty years ago this month, about 70% of the US was in severe or worse drought.
There is 97% certainty that anything reported in the press about climate is complete nonsense.
Journalism school teaches reporters that history began when they were born.
More like when they started journalism school.
They aren’t journalists for the most part. Just liberal democrats pretending to be. Several years ago I read a survey of US Journalism students. The #1 answer to the question of why they choose journalism as their field was: “I want to make a difference”.
Real journalism died long ago. If it hadn’t the current president would not be office and his AG and certain other officials would have been doing the perp walk long ago.
Glenn Reynolds calls them Democratic operatives with bylines:
http://pjmedia.com/instapundit/?s=democratic+operatives+bylines
CIA operative Kent Clizbe calls journalists Willing Accomplices in his book.
KGB operative Alexander Vassiliev calls them the most plentiful KGB spies in the USA in his book – Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America
See, part of the problem was, back in ’34 most of the affected areas were ‘rural’ and not the abode of the ‘elite’. Now, the ‘horrible’, ‘unprecedented’, ‘devastating’ drought is mostly in areas that are the abode of those that were left out, back in ’34. (Namely southern CA…)
And as we all know, the center of the known universe is southern CA, particularly the LA area.
I believe here I am repeating this but so what.
I have aerial maps of Southern MN taken by Dr. Borchert of the University of Minnesota in 1937.
When compared with DNR contour maps the lakes were down by 20 feet or more. Only potholes remained.
Some grasses and young trees in some lakes caught on fire. Attempts were made to farm the lakes, but they were too alkaline. So, they were used mostly for pasture with areas of water as the source of water. The drought lasted most of the 1930’s.
Here in AZ we expect it but that San Joaquin Valley is catching hell. I don’t understand if we can alter the weather why those folks don’t get some relief…it’s a blue state but I suspect that valley is red.
For your table—- We have been in La Nina conditions for quite a while. There is some evidence that we may be moving toward El Nino (ENSO) conditions wherein the South Pacific gives off heat.
Under La Nina conditions (the ocean takes in heat) the SW US is typically dry. If a moderate ENSO does occur, it would more than likely bring moisture to the SW. US.
Of course, nothing is for certain.
Unfortunately, it looks currently like ENSO is kaput for this season, but I hope you get something.
These maps are supposedly based on soil moisture, but they are simply another form of climate propaganda. I live in Charleston, SC and work near Beaufort. This summer has been one of the wettest I can remember (50 years). For the past several weeks we’ve had almost constant rain with several ‘near biblical’ downpours of 5″ to 6″ and more. The ‘S’s shown in SC and G (signifying short term drought) are complete and utter lies. I drove through these areas this week. They are100% saturated with much of the area flooded. It’s raining again as I type this.
The S in southern New England is ridiculous too, as we’ve been having flood warnings the past week. Had a minor wash out of the driveway. Soil moisture is fine, judging by the anthills.
Don’t forget that many areas of the eastern US had periods of extended stay snowfall this past winter. Along with slower melting this spring and gentle rains…these tend to ‘charge’ the groundwater reserves more than sudden downpours. The downpours are great for filling lakes and resivoirs.
Louis, your use of governmental science terms is misleading and possibly illegal. There was only one downpour of biblical proportions in modern times:
Looking at the map I think Evangelical Christians can be convinced that God is using climate to punish the land of sin and abortion aka California. 😉
http://www.nature.com/articles/sdata20141/figures/5
Worldwide looks like drought is down. Not much of an attention-grabbing headline; just truth.
In the 1800s, maybe more the earlier part, the American West was called the Great American Desert. I believe it had serious periods of drought long before man’s CO2 emissions amounted to anything at all.