Wild Weather This Week Could Bring Needed Drought Relief to Withered West
Some Drought Relief 121321
As the Upper Midwest and Northeast digs out from its first major snowstorm of the year, California could see monumental rain and snow this week. The powerful storm is expected to drench the West Coast, as forecasters say the system could bring a month's worth of rain in a matter of days. The Sierra Nevada could also see feet of snow, which may be good news for farmers and rancher who depend on the run-off for irrigation.
As AgDay reported Monday, the latest U.S. Drought Monitor shows that more than 55% percent of the country is now in some sort of drought, which is two percentage points higher than the previous week, marking the highest point in nine years.
Just looking at the West, more than 97% of the area remains in drought. The situation is so dire it's forced cattle producers to cull cows and dairy producers to also cut back.
USDA meteorologist Brad Rippey says the system this week will provide some much needed relief.
"There is a little bit of a pattern change coming for the rest of December that could contribute to some drought relief in the western United States," says Rippey. "The big question is, will this last through the winter months or is this just a blip in the overall pattern that could lead to a third consecutive year of drought in the western United States?"
Rippey says the answer tho that question relies on one major factor: La Nina.
"I think the best thing to do in order to answer that question is to look at the fact that we are heading into a second consecutive year of La Nina, which could lead to a return of warm, dry conditions in the new year across the southwestern quadrant of the country, stretching from Southern California to the southern Great Plains," Rippey adds.
As California braces to receive a month's worth of rain over the next week, the drought relief is welcome, but meteorologists say it also comes with a warning of major risk from the heavy rain. And Drew Lerner of World Weather says this system alone won't be enough to bust the severe drought that has been taking hold of California.
"I think a lot of the mountains in California are reporting anywhere from five to about 30% of normal snow to water equivalency. And most of the rocky mountains have no more than maybe 50 to 60% of their normal moisture or normal snow water equivalency for this time of the year," says Lerner. "So we are way behind, and this event coming up will produce some impressive rains in California with models pointing to the probability of seeing three to four, maybe some five inch amounts in several areas. That's rainfall. In the mountains, we'll probably be measuring snow in feet. But i would say that you're going to have to have this kind of weather pattern repeat at least several times between now and spring before we've even come close to breaking even for the year."
Rippey says while this stormy pattern may remain for a couple of weeks in the West...it may not last...particularly in the Southwest where he believes drought will continue and even intensify going into early next year.
