AINT NOBODY GOT TIME FOR DROUGHTS
Kind of…
Updated:
10:00AM Monday July 1, 2013
After the wettest start to the month of June in at least a decade, yesterday's downpours (1.15") were just enough to make June 2013 the wettest June on record for Poughkeepsie. It hasn't been made official yet, but based on everything I can find, the previous record should have been June 2009 when 9.22 inches of rain fell on Poughkeepsie [1]. Yesterday's rainfall brought the June 2013 total to 9.82 inches [2].
The current latest round of rain that we are experiencing has Flood watches and warnings posted from Georgia to the Maine/Canadian border.
ON THE FLIP SIDE
The west coast heatwave has been very impressive. Yesterday, Las Vegas tied their all time record high temperature of 117 [3]. The Death Valley area has been edging 130.. just shy of the world record high of 136, which was set in Death Valley 100 years ago next week. Highs in excess of 100 extend from Mexico clear up through Washington to the Canadian Border.
In my opinion, however, what has been even more impressive than the high temperatures have been the overnight "low" temperatures. Case in point: after reaching a high of 126 yesterday, the temperature at Furnace Creek, California fell to a minimum of 101 degrees this morning [4]. The Village is on track to top 128 degrees today.
Roughly 70% of the western United States is experiencing moderate to extreme drought [5].
Figure 1. Current weather advisories issued by the National Weather Service. Flood watches (Greens), speckled with flash flood warnings, along the eastern seaboard stand in stark contrast to the heat advisories and excessive heat warnings across the western states (Purple and Orange). http://www.weather.gov/
Figure 2. An expansive drought extends across the western United States, while the eastern half of the nation remains drought free. http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/
References
[1] http://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/KPOU/2009/6/27/MonthlyHistory.html#calendar
[2] http://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/KPOU/2013/6/27/MonthlyHistory.html#calendar
[3] http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/FXC/make_img.php?wfo=vef&iname=weathergraphic1L&size=1&force=no
[4] http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/mesowest/getobext.php?wfo=vef&sid=ISWC1&num=72&raw=0
[5] http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/
