|
|
|
Independence, MO —
This week’s projected weather – still hot, still dry – will likely mean a return of triple-digit temperatures, though record highs from decades past appear safe. The drought gripping the area and much of the nation continues to worsen.
On average, this is the hottest time of year. From July 15 to Aug. 6, the average high in Kansas City is 89, and then it begins slowly falling. Still, it doesn’t appear any records are in danger this week. Today’s forecast high of 98 falls far short of the record, 108, set in 1954.
The National Weather Service forecast highs and record temperatures look like this:
- Wednesday 100 (111 in 1954).
- Thursday 100 (109 in 1934).
- Friday 99 (109 in 1934)
- Saturday 100 (107 in 1974).
- Sunday 99 (106 in 1901).
Lows will be in the mid- to upper 70s, and no rain is forecast.
The weather is drawing comparisons to the Dust Bowl years of the 1930s. A good number of daily high records set in the ’30s still stand, and from July 11 to July 20, the record each day is from 1934 or 1954.
It’s also nearly as dry as some of those Dust Bowl years, at least so far. Kansas City gets an average of 38.86 inches of precipitation annually, but the 13.24 inches that’s fallen so far puts it in line with some of the worst years on record, including 1953 (20.93 inches, the record), 1932 (27.06 inches), 1933 (27.11 inches), 1934 (27.15 inches), 1936 (20.98 inches), 1988 (24.22 inches) and 2002 (24.77 inches). All are among the 15 driest on record.
Data released Monday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration show the drought gripping the United States is the widest since 1956.
Fifty-five percent of the continental U.S. was in a moderate to extreme drought by the end of June, NOAA’s National Climactic Data Center in Asheville, N.C., said in its monthly State of the Climate drought report. That’s the largest percentage since December 1956, when 58 percent of the country was covered by drought.
This summer, 80 percent of the U.S. is abnormally dry, and the report said the drought expanded in the West, Great Plains and Midwest last month with the 14th warmest and 10th driest June on record.
The state’s and nation’s corn and soybean crops have been especially hard hit over the past three months, the report said. That region has experienced its seventh warmest and 10th driest April-to-June period.
“Topsoil has dried out and crops, pastures and rangeland have deteriorated at a rate rarely seen in the last 18 years,” the report said.
This week’s projected weather – still hot, still dry – will likely mean a return of triple-digit temperatures, though record highs from decades past appear safe. The drought gripping the area and much of the nation continues to worsen.
On average, this is the hottest time of year. From July 15 to Aug. 6, the average high in Kansas City is 89, and then it begins slowly falling. Still, it doesn’t appear any records are in danger this week. Today’s forecast high of 98 falls far short of the record, 108, set in 1954.
The National Weather Service forecast highs and record temperatures look like this:
- Wednesday 100 (111 in 1954).
- Thursday 100 (109 in 1934).
- Friday 99 (109 in 1934)
- Saturday 100 (107 in 1974).
- Sunday 99 (106 in 1901).
Lows will be in the mid- to upper 70s, and no rain is forecast.
The weather is drawing comparisons to the Dust Bowl years of the 1930s. A good number of daily high records set in the ’30s still stand, and from July 11 to July 20, the record each day is from 1934 or 1954.
It’s also nearly as dry as some of those Dust Bowl years, at least so far. Kansas City gets an average of 38.86 inches of precipitation annually, but the 13.24 inches that’s fallen so far puts it in line with some of the worst years on record, including 1953 (20.93 inches, the record), 1932 (27.06 inches), 1933 (27.11 inches), 1934 (27.15 inches), 1936 (20.98 inches), 1988 (24.22 inches) and 2002 (24.77 inches). All are among the 15 driest on record.
Data released Monday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration show the drought gripping the United States is the widest since 1956.
Fifty-five percent of the continental U.S. was in a moderate to extreme drought by the end of June, NOAA’s National Climactic Data Center in Asheville, N.C., said in its monthly State of the Climate drought report. That’s the largest percentage since December 1956, when 58 percent of the country was covered by drought.
This summer, 80 percent of the U.S. is abnormally dry, and the report said the drought expanded in the West, Great Plains and Midwest last month with the 14th warmest and 10th driest June on record.
The state’s and nation’s corn and soybean crops have been especially hard hit over the past three months, the report said. That region has experienced its seventh warmest and 10th driest April-to-June period.
“Topsoil has dried out and crops, pastures and rangeland have deteriorated at a rate rarely seen in the last 18 years,” the report said.
The Missouri Department of Agriculture, in a market report issued last Friday, described “a growing climate that can only be described as bleak.” Virtually all of the state’s topsoil and subsoil is rated as short of moisture. Statewide, 54 percent of the soybean crop and 60 percent of the corn crop are rated as poor or very poor.
The national report is based on a data set going back to 1895 called the Palmer Drought Index, which feeds into the widely watched and more detailed U.S. Drought Monitor. It reported last week that 61 percent of the continental U.S. was in a moderate to exceptional drought. (Jackson County, like much of Missouri, is in a severe drought.) However, the weekly Drought Monitor goes back only 12 years, so climatologists use the Palmer Drought Index for comparing droughts before 2000.
