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Independence, MO —
Thursday’s pop-up thunderstorms – with downpours here and there – will help a little, but every dry day has been adding little more to the metro area’s 10-inch-plus deficit of rain since the beginning of April.
The drought is taking a toll, and little relief is in sight. There’s a 30 percent chance of scattered showers today, but then it’s highs in the mid- to high 90s and no rain for a week.
The National Weather Service on Thursday outlined the depth of the drought. In the 14 and a half weeks from April 1 through Wednesday, rainfall amounts have been:
• 5.44 inches at Kansas City International Airport, where the area’s official measurements are taken. That’s 10.52 inches short of normal for the period. Put another way, only 34 percent of the average rainfall as come.
• 8.68 inches in Lee’s Summit, which is 49 percent of the average, 17.64 inches.
Jackson County, like most of the state, remains in a state of extreme drought, according to the Weather Service. All of the state is at least rated as abnormally dry, and all or parts of 13 counties in the southeast corner of the state are in what’s categorized as extreme drought. Gov. Jay Nixon this week asked the U.S. secretary of agriculture to designate all 114 counties in the state as disaster areas. That would clear the way for federal assistance for farmers.
Corn farmers expected this to be a record year when they planted, sowing 96.4 million acres nationwide, the most since 1937. The U.S. Department of Agriculture predicted they would get 166 bushels per acre. But after months with little or no rain and extreme heat in large portions of the Corn Belt, the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Wednesday revised that estimate, saying it now expects farmers to average just 146 bushels per acre this year.
That would still be an improvement from a decade ago, when the average was about 129 bushels. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack still expects the nation to produce the third-largest corn crop in American history.
“It is important to point out that improved seed technology and improved efficiencies on the farm have made it a little bit easier for some producers to get through a very, very difficult weather stretch,” Vilsack said. “Our hope is rains come to the central part of the United States soon to be able to salvage what can be salvaged.”
The drought stretches from parts of Ohio to California. The historic drought that gripped Texas and other parts of the Southwest last year was more severe, but this year’s dry spell is notable for the sheer size of the affected land.
Thursday’s pop-up thunderstorms – with downpours here and there – will help a little, but every dry day has been adding little more to the metro area’s 10-inch-plus deficit of rain since the beginning of April.
The drought is taking a toll, and little relief is in sight. There’s a 30 percent chance of scattered showers today, but then it’s highs in the mid- to high 90s and no rain for a week.
The National Weather Service on Thursday outlined the depth of the drought. In the 14 and a half weeks from April 1 through Wednesday, rainfall amounts have been:
• 5.44 inches at Kansas City International Airport, where the area’s official measurements are taken. That’s 10.52 inches short of normal for the period. Put another way, only 34 percent of the average rainfall as come.
• 8.68 inches in Lee’s Summit, which is 49 percent of the average, 17.64 inches.
Jackson County, like most of the state, remains in a state of extreme drought, according to the Weather Service. All of the state is at least rated as abnormally dry, and all or parts of 13 counties in the southeast corner of the state are in what’s categorized as extreme drought. Gov. Jay Nixon this week asked the U.S. secretary of agriculture to designate all 114 counties in the state as disaster areas. That would clear the way for federal assistance for farmers.
Corn farmers expected this to be a record year when they planted, sowing 96.4 million acres nationwide, the most since 1937. The U.S. Department of Agriculture predicted they would get 166 bushels per acre. But after months with little or no rain and extreme heat in large portions of the Corn Belt, the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Wednesday revised that estimate, saying it now expects farmers to average just 146 bushels per acre this year.
That would still be an improvement from a decade ago, when the average was about 129 bushels. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack still expects the nation to produce the third-largest corn crop in American history.
“It is important to point out that improved seed technology and improved efficiencies on the farm have made it a little bit easier for some producers to get through a very, very difficult weather stretch,” Vilsack said. “Our hope is rains come to the central part of the United States soon to be able to salvage what can be salvaged.”
The drought stretches from parts of Ohio to California. The historic drought that gripped Texas and other parts of the Southwest last year was more severe, but this year’s dry spell is notable for the sheer size of the affected land.
“To see something on this continental scale, where we’re seeing such a large portion of the country in drought, you have to go back to 1988,” said Brad Rippey, a USDA agricultural meteorologist.
Almost a third of the nation’s corn crop has been damaged by heat and drought, and a number of farmers in the hardest hit areas of the Midwest have cut down their crops just midway through the growing season.
Corn production has been improving steadily for decades, the result of scientific advances going back to the introduction of the first commercial hybrid in 1923. Genetic engineering accelerated the process in recent years and allowed the development of some strains that borrow DNA from other species for pest resistance.
