A major drought has hit the country and is the worst in about 50 years. A heat wave of historic proportions hit the country a couple of weeks ago causing deaths and disaster. A major storm called a Derecho hit the Ohio Valley causing destruction and major power outages. There must be a reason or pattern causing these wacky weather situations.
The latest is a request for Federal assistance as the worst drought in 50 years is now wreaking havoc on corn crops across the United States. The federal government announced yesterday that as much as 70 percent of the Nation is now in a drought situation and it is not getting better for now.
La Nina is a fairly normal cycle that happens every 6-to-14 years and is when the Pacific waters near the equator are slightly cooler than normal for an extended amount of time. This is the opposite of the El Nino which is where the waters are warmer than normal for extended amounts of time.
When La Nina patterns set up, we tend to see more high pressure and ridging over much of North America. This means the Jet Stream that guides our storms tends to migrate further to the north and we tend to see less rain and storm activity over parts of the lower 48. The opposite tends to happen in an El Nina when we tend to see more flooding and storms over the lower 48 areas.
La Nina patterns can last 2 years and are not as common as the more infamous La Nina. We are now in our second year of a La Nina and many scientists believe we were in a La Nina phase in the 1930s when the "Dust Bowl" set up over the U.S. as it became so dry farms turned to dusty lands. The problem is that this La Nina has lasted not one, but two years.
La Nina tends to cause sinking air which leads to strong high pressure over the U.S. This can lead to long-term heat waves and lack of rain as we have seen over the last several weeks. There is some good news in that the current La Nina pattern seems to be weakening and that hopefully will allow the jet stream to return to a more normal pattern as well. This should allow more rain to begin to form and more fronts to drop down further south into drought stricken areas.
The bad news is that right now is the prime growing season for corn crops and this weakening of the La Nina will not come fast enough to save the corn. The damage is already here and Federal aid will likely be needed for those farmers. The price of corn products will also likely be higher at the store as well. At a time when the economy is in a bad state and candidate re-elections are in the running, this can tend to lead to less consumer confidence and people being less likely to spend money in uncertain times.
This story doesn't say a lot other then the effect. No real reason was given about the weather.
I think I'll give an account from my view on Canada's Wacky Weather in Sask,
So as I said in my last blog, about waiting for snow and having a longer fall, yeah that's not normal for Canada, in fact it's down right strange. But all you get is people's opions no hard facts about what's creating this long fall and shorter spring. It seems as though there was a switch. Just this past year the snow only started falling somewhere in the middle of November and stuck around till April. Which is highly strange. We normally see snow going away in March, Not that there was a lot of snow to begin with but it was odd how it had lasted. On March 22 or 23 I had my own encounter with Wacky Weather, It was chilly out but most of the snow was gone and it look like a nice spring was on its way. Anyways I had gone out to a small concert out in the sticks (about 20 minutes from my place) it finished up and I started to leave about 10 or 11 pm at night. It was snowing as I started making my way I was headed straight in for this storm. Just a few hours earlier it was clear and nice and now I couldn't see out of my window. I was going about 40 down the highway, Crazy! All I could see was the dead grass by the side of the road on my right. It was a long painful drive but I made it home. Of course the next morning it was as if it never happened... I might have thought I dream ed it all up but it was to late of a night for me to dream that up. Wacky Weather with no explanation. Some say Global Warming, others say Canada, guess we'll never really know.
Some things just can't be explained. Like Northern Lights or why only 1 sock comes out of the dryer. It might be because it's beyond our understanding, or we just can't know why. Wacky Weather has been explained before from all over the world, but sometimes it takes years to find out the reasons for it all. A lot of the Weather is un-able to be predicated or understood.
I'll say this as a warning, Wacky Weather can be faked. Don't believe everything you read or even see, because it can be faked and a lot of times it is. But A lot of times its not. Learn what you need to know and you can be fooled if you understand and get the weather. So do your own re-search and figure out what you believe is True. Or False.
No comments:
Post a Comment