91 percent of state in drought
Drought conditions worsened in the western half of Arkansas this week, and forecasters say conditions will continue to deteriorate in the weeks to come.
More than 90 percent of the state is considered to be in some form of drought, said Brian Fuchs, a climatologist with the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
“This area is really beginning to dry out,” Fuchs said of the state. “People are getting nervous.”
Most of the southwestern and western United States also is suffering from drought, he said. Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska and the Oklahoma panhandle are experiencing the worst conditions, he said.
The center, which issues weekly drought reports for the United States based on rainfall totals, tempera-
tures and other meteorological data, rated portions of five counties in Northwest Arkansas and eight counties in the southwestern corner in “severe” drought. The designation means the area is deficient of between 3 and 4 inches of rain over a 3o-day period, although temperatures, foliage and other factors are considered in drought classifications.
A large swath through the middle of the state is in “moderate” drought — deficient of between 2 and 3 inches of rain over a 30-day period.
In all, 91 percent of the state is classified as being in drought, the report said Thursday. Last week, 76 percent of Arkansas was in some form of drought.
Only portions of eight northeast Arkansas counties remain drought-free.
“It’s getting worse,” Newton County Clerk Donnie Davis said of the dry conditions in Jasper. “I’m looking out at the courtyard and the grass is brown. The grass isn’t crunchy yet, but it’s dry enough that gardens aren’t making it.”
Meteorologists said the drought got off to a slower start this year because of a wetter spring.
“If we didn’t see the early spring rainfalls in Arkansas, we’d still be talking about last year’s drought continuing to get worse,” Fuchs said. “But there was an abundance of moisture [in the spring], and that helped quite a bit.”
Dry conditions prevailed in June, however, and many areas began seeing conditions similar to May 2012, when the state entered what Fuchs called a flash drought .
At this time last year, the entire state was in some form of drought, and 11 percent was in “exceptional” drought, meaning areas were deficient of 10 inches or more of rainfall over a 30-day period.
Texarkana is 10.2 inches below normal in rainfall from the first of the year through July 15, the National Weather Service in North Little Rock said. El Dorado is 8.4 inches below normal, and Harrison is 3.1 inches below normal for that period.
However, northeast Arkansas has had a bounty of moisture. West Memphis is 5.2 inches above its normal rainfall for the first 6½ months. Jonesboro is 3.6 inches above normal. Neither area is experiencing any form of drought.
The Arkansas Forestry Commission reported Thursday that 36 counties were placed under burn bans and all but the northeast corner of the state was considered to be in “moderate” fire danger.
Those counties are Baxter, Boone, Carroll, Clark, Cleburne, Cleveland, Conway, Dallas, Faulkner, Franklin, Fulton, Garland, Grant, Howard, Independence, Izard, Jefferson, Johnson, Lonoke, Madison, Marion, Monroe, Newton, Ouachita, Perry, Pike, Pope, Prairie, Pulaski, Saline, Searcy, Sharp, Stone, Van Buren, White and Yell.
Firefighters battled four wildfires Wednesday in southwest Arkansas, commission spokesman Sheila Doughty said. So far in July, there have been 85 wildfires that burned 844 acres, she said.
Doughty said she expects conditions will worsen, and the commission may upgrade the wildfire danger to “high” in some spots next week, meaning the commission will discourage any open burning.
Portions of Arkansas got rain Thursday, including Little Rock and much of the south and eastern parts of the state. But it wasn’t enough to affect the drought, forecasters said.
In Nevada County, which is in “extreme” drought, farmers have modified planting schedules to adapt to the dry conditions, said Melissa Beck, a Newton County extension agent.
“After the last two years, it’s not surprising to us that we’re dry in July,” she said. “We’ve come to expect this.”
She said farmers planted wheat and rye grasses earlier than usual this year, taking advantage of the rains, to make hay for cattle in the late summer. Watermelon farmers also have grown crops atop plastic liners for better irrigation.
“Our producers are thinking outside the box,” Beck said. “It was necessary.”
The drought conditions in western Arkansas are aided by a rare weather phenomenon, said National Weather Service meteorologist Chris Buonanno of North Little Rock. Storms that developed across the state have tracked from east to west during the past few weeks. Usually, they move west to east, he said.
“We’re seeing small, single-cell storms with a lifespan of about 30 minutes,” he said. “They pop up and, if they produce rain, it’s not in enough of a large area to affect the drought much.”
He said the storms are weak and are moved by an east-to-west airflow.
“It’s rare, but if it happens it’ll be this time of year,” he said.
The reverse in the weather flow, called retrograding, has kept central Oklahoma drought-free this year, Fuchs said. Storms developed in eastern Oklahoma and moved west, dumping lots of rain on Oklahoma City and the region. Yet in western Oklahoma, “extreme” and “exceptional” drought conditions prevail.
“You see the problems accelerate in areas that are already dry,” Fuchs said. “Some areas have gotten moisture in the spring. But in some areas it wasn’t enough, and all of a sudden the brakes are put on and the dryness comes quickly.”
There are also oddities in this week’s drought report, Fuchs said.
A portion of central Alaska is in moderate drought because higher temperatures have affected the area’s permafrost, he said. There’s also a reduction of water from lakes through heavier water consumption, he added.
And a small portion of northern Minnesota, including Bemidji near the headwaters of the Mississippi River, is in moderate drought.
“We’re keeping an eye on that area,” he said. “There are issues with water tables there. It stands out.”
Buonanno said long-range forecasts released Thursday don’t give an optimistic outlook for breaking the drought. If any storms develop in the next several weeks, they typically will be short-lived, he said.
“Unless there is a tropical system that comes through — like [remnants of] Hurricane Irene last year — we won’t see any large-scale precipitation for a while,” he said. “There’s no indication of much moisture ahead.”