What’s next? Locusts?
Friday, Jun 22, 2012 - Posted by Rich Miller
* A good friend of mine has a farm on the northern border of Madison County. He’s been complaining for weeks that his land is dry as a bone. And it turns out, he’s not alone…
About 70 percent of Illinois is in a drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, a collaborative effort between federal and state authorities. Northern Illinois, described in the weekly report as “extremely-dry,” is one category away from the entire state being classified as in a drought. […]
There’s no relief in sight long-term, either. The National Weather Service issued predictions Thursday for the remainder of summer, calling for above average temperatures and below average precipitation in the region into September — a forecast State Climatologist Jim Angel called ‘ominous.’”
“We’re used to certain seasons in Illinois, but it’s as if our weather is three to four weeks ahead of schedule,” Angel said. “It’d be like if we moved Chicago to Nashville, Tennessee — we’re experiencing unusually hot and dry conditions we’re not used to.” […]
Last June, O’Hare Airport reported an average 3.39 inches of rain, while this month it has only seen 0.44 inches. The last time the task force was called to action, seven years ago, June measured 0.76 inches of rainfall.
- wordslinger - Friday, Jun 22, 12 @ 11:14 am:
Buy corn futures.
- SO IL M - Friday, Jun 22, 12 @ 11:17 am:
Would the person who prayed for the rain to end last year, please say its ok to start again. Just not as much.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Jun 22, 12 @ 11:17 am:
There is a “crickets” infestation in Austin TX …
- Southern Peggy R - Friday, Jun 22, 12 @ 11:25 am:
it is bone dry down here in metro east. corn still looks green amazingly. nice clouds yesterday but no rain.
but we’re just a bunch of backward hicks and bigots.
- Wensicia - Friday, Jun 22, 12 @ 11:33 am:
Where I live, it’s rained once in the past four weeks or so, a few tenths of an inch. I’m surprised to see my lawn turning brown this early into summer, even though most of it is shaded by trees.
I expect they’ll cancel fireworks away from the lakefront if it doesn’t rain significantly by the 4th of July. The fire hazard will be especially high because of all the deadfall from last year’s violent windstorms up here in Lake County.
- Excessively Rabid - Friday, Jun 22, 12 @ 11:35 am:
I was fortunate enough to get an inch of rain on my corn in Pontiac last week. Otherwise that area would be in the same boat. Indiana is quite dry too. As far as futures, that is not a game for beginners.
- Deep South - Friday, Jun 22, 12 @ 11:38 am:
Bone dry in the deep south. National Weather Service has us in the “extreme” drought category.
- vole - Friday, Jun 22, 12 @ 11:52 am:
Substitute Japanese Beetles for locusts to add insult to injury.
Some of our plants that bloom in Sep./Oct. have been blooming for two weeks.
Irrigation systems in the sands area along the Illinois River have run more in the last month than they did in the previous 3-4 years combined.
Ominous is the word.
- Anon - Friday, Jun 22, 12 @ 11:54 am:
“but we’re just a bunch of backward hicks and bigots”
What does that have to do with anything related to this thread?
- MrJM - Friday, Jun 22, 12 @ 11:58 am:
The locusts will not come to Illinois because the state hasn’t paid them in 18 months.
– MrJM
- Southern Peggy R - Friday, Jun 22, 12 @ 12:00 pm:
vole,yes we’re seeing beetles too. MIssissippi very dry & low all spring and summer. MrJM—funny!
- Michelle Flaherty - Friday, Jun 22, 12 @ 12:10 pm:
The funding for rain was cut as part of the Medicaid reductions.
- Bigtwich - Friday, Jun 22, 12 @ 12:17 pm:
OW
I thought the Crickets were from Lubbock.
- Pot calling kettle - Friday, Jun 22, 12 @ 12:20 pm:
The Drought Monitor is here: http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/
Up until this week, the forecast was for and equal chance of normal or hot and dry. Hate to see this turn.
- Blago's Hare - Friday, Jun 22, 12 @ 12:23 pm:
Must try to look on bright side…kid’s baseball games have not been rained out one time this year.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Jun 22, 12 @ 12:24 pm:
Gary Busey says your right …
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Jun 22, 12 @ 12:25 pm:
===Buy corn futures.===
I am thinking “Frozen Orange Juice” …
- Techboy - Friday, Jun 22, 12 @ 12:51 pm:
Get used to global warming effects gradually shifting the corn belt North into Canada, and the migration of new pests and plant diseases as their ranges creep North with the heat.
- Stooges - Friday, Jun 22, 12 @ 1:55 pm:
Did anybody ever prove there is global warming, or is it climate change?
- Wensicia - Friday, Jun 22, 12 @ 1:59 pm:
Global warming and climate change are not mutually exclusive. One is the result of the other.
- Yellow Dog Democrat - Friday, Jun 22, 12 @ 3:18 pm:
@Stooges -
Yes. To the degree the existence of atoms and evolution have been proven, climate change is a scientific fact.
No one has ever “seen” a dinosaur or an atom, btw. But if someone told you atoms and dinosaurs don’t exist, you’d laugh at them.
- West winger - Friday, Jun 22, 12 @ 3:27 pm:
Yellow Dog:
You need to get inside. All that global warming has fried your brain.
All that has been proven with climate change is that leftist ideologues still haven’t figured out how to get their computer models to emulate real life.
Global temps have flatlined since 1998 and all those dramatic sea rises and ice melts haven’t happened yet. But hey, if you shovel enough government money into the movement, you can’t stop shoveling the ideology back out.
- TwoFeetThick - Friday, Jun 22, 12 @ 3:45 pm:
=== Global temps have flatlined since 1998 and all those dramatic sea rises and ice melts haven’t happened yet.===
Whoa there, big fella, step away from the Fox News. Use the Google and look up “hottest year on record”. Then try “arctic ice melt”. Finally, look up “most misinformed news watchers”.
- West winger - Friday, Jun 22, 12 @ 4:50 pm:
Yes, Thick, I’ll go look up the same sources who fabricated National Guard records, doctored videos, and generally is corrupt. Start by explaining to me how it was hotter during other periods of world history without carbon spewing cars. Then, explain how atmospheric temps are flat since 1998. Only surface temps are fluctuating all over the place because they keep changing the recording stations, a hugely subjective exercise because of proximity to urban areas, etc. http://www.truthandliberty.com/Climate.html
Also, while I look up Fox News I’ll be sure to find the Pew research study that said it was by far the most objective station in political coverage during the 2008 election. By all means, bathe in your liberal igno-ganda.