Droughts Extend Across Americas

[desrt]

If you thought gang violence in Central America caused a massive northward migration  ........

http://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/not-just-california-droughts-extend-across-americas-n220376

"Say “drought” and Americans are likely to think California, but the Golden State is hardly alone when looking across the Western Hemisphere: A dry spell has killed cattle and wiped out crops in Central America, parts of Colombia have seen rioting over scarce water, and southern Brazil is facing its worst dry spell in 50 years...........
Worst hit has been Central America, where drought has created food shortages for 2.5 million people, most of them “subsistence farmers and families in highly food-insecure areas,” says Miguel Barreto, regional program manager for the U.N.’s World Food Program.

Droughts, and along with them plant diseases, are happening more frequently, says Lorena Aguilar, regional technical manager for the Famine Early Warning Systems Network, funded by USAID.

“The previous two years saw drought and this is the third,” she says, adding that this year was also the driest for most of Central America in 30 years of recordkeeping........

The U.S. recently pledged $10 million in aid, but the WFP said it needs $65 million to help drought victims and to replenish aid given out earlier due to the coffee rust.


Drought reaches farther south as well:

Panama: The head of the Panama Canal warned that the biggest ships might not be let through in early 2015 if rainfall doesn’t restore water levels at the lakes that feed the canal’s locks.
Colombia: Some northern areas where rain hasn’t fallen in two years have seen riots over water.
Venezuela: Water rationing became mandatory in some areas.
Bolivia: Thousands of forest fires were attributed to the worst drought in 30 years.
Brazil: A third of southern Brazil’s 21 million people face water shortages. Parts of Sao Paulo, Brazil’s biggest city, have been rationing water since February.
In Central America, heavy rains since late September “helped alleviate” the drought in some areas, says Wassila Thiaw, international team lead at the U.S. Climate Prediction Center. But, he adds, that’s also meant crop damage in parts of Guatemala and El Salvador..........
For Barreto, the WFP’s regional program manager, the danger of a warming world is not just about drought but other “more intense and frequent extreme weather” — especially hurricanes — across Central America and the Caribbean.

The region also has that more immediate concern: El Nino. The National Weather Service said in its monthly forecast that a weak El Nino might develop over the next month or two and last into next spring. The question is whether that would bring enough rain.

“It’d be very rare to have drought four years in a row,” says Aguilar, “but then again we don’t know what El Nino will do.”

[brice1967]

I didn't half to water my grass 1/2 as much this summer as I did in the last 5-6.  We also didn't have many wildfires.  I am thankful for that.  3 years ago, we were a real crispy critter.  A beer burp could have started a fire around here.

[orphanedhawk]

During the drought in the 70s, which was not as severe as this one, people everywhere were conserving water. Now, this is not the case at all.

[brice1967]

Doing well here in western Wyoming... well, considering what most everyone else is going through.