We hear about the drought almost every day and even if your livelihood isn't directly affected by the lack of rain, we will somehow pay the price through higher food costs, water bills, etc.
How much rain would it take to end the drought? The numbers are incredible, but consider for a moment, we've been dealing with some classification of drought in our area since October of 2010. If you calculate the rainfall deficit from 2011 and so far in 2012, you find some very big numbers. Salina would need almost 20 inches of rain to completely wipe out the drought, Dodge City needs almost 15 inches of moisture, with Wichita needing just over 10 inches of rain. The only way to get this kind of rainfall is with some kind of tropical system, or a stalled storm system that hangs around for several consecutive days. You won't likely see that any time soon, so the only thing we can hope for is a continuation of smaller rains along the way. I expect the drought will ease through the fall, but there will be some kind of drought classification for Kansas into the spring months. Maybe then, with an El Nino influence on the weather pattern, we will be in a better situation than we are now.
2 comments:
Doesn't the el nino come every seven years?
Isn't this just the cycle of weather? I remember when I was a kid,(in the '50's) the adults saying that Kansas was turning into a desert.
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