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Durn, it' hot and dry out there! Deserts expanding...
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Posted by randy_f (My Page) on Fri, May 26, 06 at 17:59
| Whether man-made or not, I don't like this! And I believe it. Dallas has been hotter and drier the last 20 years than it was when I was a kid. We are in a severe drought condition already, and summer hasn't started! West of Ft. Worth, just 20 miles or so, is much different than Dallas. Or, at least it used to be! I hope it's conditions aren't creeping this way. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Deserts enlarging
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Durn, it' hot and dry out there! Deserts expanding...
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| 7" behind the average rainfall here in Virginia too. Most unusual to get a dry spring around here (driest March on record, a Dry April, and maybe dried May?) and it doesn't bode well for the local farmers since the typical dry spells hit here in the summer months. |
RE: Durn, it' hot and dry out there! Deserts expanding...
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| We are having plenty of rainfall, this spring, here in central Wisconsin. However, last summer was quite dry, and I'm not sure that the groundwater has been replenished, yet. When conditions are right, we get warm and damp air coming up from the Gulf of Mexico, mixing with cold & dry air from Canada. This spring, conditions have been right for rain. |
RE: Durn, it' hot and dry out there! Deserts expanding...
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| ....I value scientific sites and journals.... but would like to suggest keying in (using search engines) on the works of Biologist Jayne Belnap (USGS);Craig Dremann's website and links :the Reveg Edge(referenced in USDA forest journals);and plant stress.com/for a start.... |
RE: Durn, it' hot and dry out there! Deserts expanding...
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| Spring of 1997 we had what they were terming "the 50-year flood" highwaters after huge winter snows. I'm in the mountain region of southeastern British Columbia, Canada (above Spokane, Washington, USA). This spring we had unusually high temps in April and early May, then went to rain in last 10 days or so of May. Again, our river is flooding the lowlands... but not quite as bad as spring '97. Joel |
RE: Durn, it' hot and dry out there! Deserts expanding...
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| well, guess we can google the NOAA site...I keep hearing record and/or near record setting temperatures where I live in northwestern CO......(dry and hot....) |
RE: Durn, it' hot and dry out there! Deserts expanding...
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| We have had plenty of rain this spring,and the water table is well above normal here in the central part of New York State. The high amounts of rain have been good for the the recent crops that have been planted. Outside of that,the last few years we have been having many clashes between warm and cold fronts,which trigger very violent thunder storms during most of the summer. |
RE: Durn, it' hot and dry out there! Deserts expanding...
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| Randy, Could you trade some of your heat for some rain?....Around here in spring I wonder when it will get hot and slow off with the rain...just got another little shower... |
RE: Durn, it' hot and dry out there! Deserts expanding...
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| We have just experienced the first .2 rainfall in 7 months, southeastern az, No winter rain in 4 years, a pitifull monsoon for the last 6 years. Way off the "norm". Our yearly rainfall in 1981 was 30 inches, which split between 15 in fall and 15 in summer monsoon. Our yearly rainfall is now considered to be 17 inches a year (optimal estimate), Is the climate changing?? Boy Howdy, is it ever!! So much so that we have opted for a water catchment (roof and run-off) system to be a part of our household. The local utility is fighting us for the right to do that!!!!! What a crock!! We wish to go as green as possible and are being met with roadblocks every step of the way,. in sanctions, or taxes because we live within city limits,,, even though we are the last house in city limits and affect no one in a 100 meter radius (300+ feet).. We only want to do good for the area around us. My hsband and I are committed to the environment and the creatures that surround us,, and yes,,, wish to make a statement about sustainable practices. The future will not be cooler and wetter, ask any meteorologist.... Our drought is only beginning |
RE: Durn, it' hot and dry out there! Deserts expanding...
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| Wasn't it a long period of drought - dozens or even hundreds of years - that destroyed the Pueblo culture? Or weakened it, at least, pre-spanish invasion. Meanwhile, the northeast seems to get cooler and wetter. The southeast is maybe a bit drier. Brazil has experienced a significant drop in rainfall in the last couple of years, a disaster for an economy that depends on hydro-electric. This is blamed on warming of the carribean and tropical atlantic. |
RE: Durn, it' hot and dry out there! Deserts expanding...
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| ...There may be environmental/physiological stresses pertainting to proper seed development(i.e.continued viability)/seed profundity,germination requirements of timely,moderate (endemic) precipitation matched to the prerequisites of existing plant communities the continued health of rhizospheric microflora; possible implications of pessimistic,inbreeding reproductive strategies of plants under stress based upon (some) fundemental consequences of "abrupt climatic changes"(NAS)...( untimely droughts/extended saturated soils)>(i.e.plantstress.com/) ...just abbreviated thoughts,here...(IMO>>my own speculations)).... |
RE: Durn, it' hot and dry out there! Deserts expanding...
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| Right, change is change - including a trend to cooler and wetter averages regionally. Who knows what the consequences will be. In the time-span of one vernal season (like this one), it means a bigger pea-harvest. Eat while we can! |
RE: Durn, it' hot and dry out there! Deserts expanding...
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| Back in the mid 1960s, I've read, the great British international silviculturist Richard St. Barbe Baker led a 25,000-mile expedition around the Sahara desert. They made contact with many foresters and reforestation projects, and I believe instigated some new ones. I seem to remember that in his biography written shortly after that time, Baker said there was a great deal of reforestation effort taking place in African countries, because the climate-moderating and soil-holding effects of forests - as well as their future economic value - were widely recognized. Whatever happened to these projects? Too much poverty and strife in these regions? Or have some succeeded, while others went by the wayside? Joel |
RE: Durn, it' hot and dry out there! Deserts expanding...
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hello joel...I acknowledge good people providing humanitarian aid regardless of events which may interfere with their good work....
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...(also):to tidy up a questionable post of mine, one might have the time and inclination to read a 47 page peer reviewed pdf article found at the Harvard Center For Health and the Global Environment under "Publications".. |
RE: Durn, it' hot and dry out there! Deserts expanding...
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| pickwick wrote: "hello joel...I acknowledge good people providing humanitarian aid regardless of events which may interfere with their good work...." Yes, I acknowledge them as well. But my question was actual, and not rhetorical: What has happened to the African reforestation projects begun 40 years ago? Joel |
RE: Durn, it' hot and dry out there! Deserts expanding...
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| In 2004 Wangari Maathai won the Nobel Peace Prize for her work which includes reforestation. This link can give you more info about her and the tree planting efforts. |
Here is a link that might be useful: green belt movement
RE: Durn, it' hot and dry out there! Deserts expanding...
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good link, Althea;
...wish to provide a specific peer reviewed article published in 2000 ,which I think provides a further introduction to some of the implications of graphs we are all familiar with.... "Climate Change and U.S.Agriculture:TheImpacts of Warming and Extreme Weather Events on Productivity, Plants Diseases, and Pests" found under Publications at the Harvard Center for Health and the Global Environment
http://chge.med.harvard.edu/index.html
a couple of related peer reviewed sites are plantstress:
http//www.plantstress.com/Articles/index.asps
plant pathology online:http:www.apsnet.org/online/features/ also an article in the July(2006) issue of Scientific American(p.37)Ecology and Political Upheaval; Jefery Sachs; Columbia University adresses some other related implications....However,it is the destruction of bombing runs on urban infrastructures which have taken so much money and years of work, I find equally depressing...
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Here is a link that might be useful: harvard site
RE: Durn, it' hot and dry out there! Deserts expanding...
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| My viewpoint is that there exists a series of implicit precautions in my participatory role here.... |
RE: Durn, it' hot and dry out there! Deserts expanding...
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| Here in Madison, we are having a very hot & humid July, with daytime highs approaching historic records. However, we are also getting the occasional t-storm, with considerable rainfall, and even localized flooding. I'm not sure why the thunderstorms are developing over Wisconsin, in considerable number. I suspect that there are other areas of the north central states, parts of Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota, that are seeing the heat, but not the rainfall. |
RE: Durn, it' hot and dry out there! Deserts expanding...
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| ...hope that the area infrastructure and water quality issues are at acceptable levels to handle these fluctuactions and that area farmers find a means to pay for increased fuel costs to operate their machinery.... |
RE: Durn, it' hot and dry out there! Deserts expanding...
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| ...I rather had higher expectations concerning the biology of plants and the integration of specific fields under our contemporary conditions coupled with the emergence of other nations.... |
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