The megadrought that has almost the entire western half of the country in a death grip is starting to become extremely painful. In some areas, irrigation water is being totally cut off for farmers, and that is going to result in a totally lost year for many of them. Without water, you simply cannot grow crops, and irrigation water is the difference between success and failure for multitudes of western farmers. Scientists are also warning that this upcoming wildfire season could be even worse than last year due to the bone dry conditions. For me, it is difficult to imagine a wildfire season that is any worse than what we experienced in 2021. But this is what they are telling us. This megadrought has already been going on for many years, and experts are giving us very little hope that things will improve any time in the foreseeable future. In fact, CBS News is reporting that this current drought is in danger of evolving into a “permanent drought”…
Extreme drought across the Western U.S. has become as reliable as a summer afternoon thunderstorm in Florida. And news headlines about drought in the West can seem a bit like a broken record, with some scientists saying the region is on the precipice of permanent drought.
Even during the “Dust Bowl” of the 1930s, there was always hope that the drought would end and normal conditions would return.
But now we are being told that this is the new normal.
The western half of the country desperately needed a healthy level of precipitation during last winter’s “wet season”, but instead conditions were much drier than usual…
Consequently, this past winter’s wet season was not very wet at all. In fact, it just added insult to injury, with only 25 to 50% of normal rainfall falling across much of the Southwest and California. This followed one of the driest and hottest summers in modern times, with two historic heat waves, a summer monsoon cycle that simply did not even show up and the worst fire season in modern times.
Now we are moving into “the dry season”, and there simply is not enough water for everyone.
Along the California-Oregon border, things just went from bad to worse. Farmers in the region already knew that they would be getting much less water this year, but now federal officials have decided to completely shut the water off for most farmers…
The water crisis along the California-Oregon border went from dire to catastrophic this week as federal regulators shut off irrigation water to farmers from a critical reservoir and said they would not send extra water to dying salmon downstream or to a half-dozen wildlife refuges that harbor millions of migrating birds each year.
In what is shaping up to be the worst water crisis in generations, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation said it will not release water this season into the main canal that feeds the bulk of the massive Klamath Reclamation Project, marking a first for the 114-year-old irrigation system. The agency announced last month that hundreds of irrigators would get dramatically less water than usual, but a worsening drought picture means water will be completely shut off instead.
Needless to say, for many of them no water will mean no crops.
Without water, America will starve
Normally, the West would see bouts of high precipitation throughout the winter season to help keep things moist once summer arrives. This past winter season, however, there was very little wetness to be had.
Much of the Southwest and large swaths of California saw as little as 25 percent of the normal rainfall for the season. This bodes ominous for this part of the country as it enters the hot summer season.
Last summer was also one of the driest and hottest on record with two historic heat waves combined with a summer monsoon cycle that never occurred. This is why the wildfires raged last summer, and will probably do the same or worse this upcoming summer.
At the California-Oregon border, the situation is also dire. Farmers throughout the region say lack of rain combined with federal officials shutting off their water supply is creating disastrous growing conditions.
“In what is shaping up to be the worst water crisis in generations, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation said it will not release water this season into the main canal that feeds the bulk of the massive Klamath Reclamation Project, marking a first for the 114-year-old irrigation system,” reports explains.
“The agency announced last month that hundreds of irrigators would get dramatically less water than usual, but a worsening drought picture means water will be completely shut off instead.”
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown recently issued a drought emergency, as did California Gov. Gavin Newsom. Keep in mind that both of these states, and especially California, grow most of the country’s fruits and vegetables.
California’s Central Valley, where many other food staples are grown, is likewise dry as a bone. Some farmers in the region are actually destroying their crops ahead of the summer season in order to allow other crops to survive.
This means less food, fewer jobs, and potentially bare grocery store shelves in the coming months.
Then there is Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah, which are currently seeing the worst drought conditions since the Drought Monitor first began tracking soil moisture content back in 2000. Officials say drought conditions in these states are the worst they have ever been in at least the past 120 years.
