drought

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Americans Being Trapped in Homes by ...Tumbleweeds

The West is seeing an explosion of them this year

(Newser) - Beware the wall of tumbleweeds. Seriously. Parts of the American West are facing what Reuters calls "an explosion of tumbleweeds" thanks to a perfect storm of conditions that has created a setting ripe for rolling weeds. A rangeland resources specialist calls them "opportunistic invaders that need just a...

Good News, America: El Nino Might Be Coming

Warm-ocean pattern could bring drought relief

(Newser) - The National Oceanic Atmospheric and Administration issued an official El Nino watch yesterday—and Americans should probably hope it shows up. The warm weather pattern's approval ratings are probably in the Vladimir Putin range among most in the US, but this time it promises to bring rain to break...

Parched Calif. Farmers Turn to 'Water Witches'

Vineyard owners say dowsing works; scientists disagree

(Newser) - With California in the grip of drought, farmers throughout the state are using a mysterious and some say foolhardy tool for locating underground water: dowsers, or water witches. Practitioners of dowsing use rudimentary tools—usually copper sticks or wooden "divining rods" that resemble large wishbones—and what they describe...

California Farmland Lies Bare and Dry—Over a Fish?

Central Valley farmers want water, but it's complicated

(Newser) - California is embroiled in a water crisis that's right out of Chinatown. In the midst of a devastating drought, state officials cut off water to thousands of acres of Central Valley farmland—in part to protect smelt fish from swimming into pumps and going extinct. Not surprisingly, farmers and...

How Climate Change Fueled Syria's Uprising

Drought created refugees who were 'willing recruits' against Assad: Thomas Friedman

(Newser) - Before the uprising against Bashar al-Assad, Syria was stuck in a four-year drought the UN reportedly called the country's worst in decades. In 2008, a US embassy cable revealed by WikiLeaks predicted potential mass migration due to the weather—and the cable was right. "By 2010, roughly 1...

California in 'Worst Drought in 100 Years': Governor

Meteorologists predict drought will last at least 3 more months

(Newser) - Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency for California today, over what the governor called "perhaps the worst drought that California has ever seen" in the roughly 100 years the state has been keeping records. Brown asked all residents to voluntarily cut back their water usage by 20%. "...

3.2K-Year-Old Mystery Undone by Pollen
 3.2K-Year-Old Mystery 
 Undone by Pollen  
in case you missed it
Oct 26, 2013 7:00 PM CDT

3.2K-Year-Old Mystery Undone by Pollen

Drought led to crisis in Bronze Age society: researchers

(Newser) - In the Late Bronze Age, a thriving society near present-day Tel Aviv and far beyond suddenly fell apart, and researchers have long been stumped as to the precise cause—until now. The explanation for the crisis lies in fossilized pollen, which remains stable for millennia and points the finger of...

Great Lakes' Plan: Water- Based 'Blue Economy'

New businesses to include resorts, labs, manufacturing

(Newser) - Cities surrounding the Great Lakes have had it tough since their manufacturing industries dwindled—but now, they're hoping for a comeback based on an enormous resource: the Lakes themselves. "We all recognize that water has become more and more of a precious commodity," says Milwaukee mayor Tom...

Syria's War Triggered by ... Water?

The Tigris-Euphrates Basin is losing a lot of water, and fast

(Newser) - Tucked into a piece on the drastically dropping water levels in the Middle East's Tigris-Euphrates Basin comes this theory: The drop helped spur the Syrian civil war. As Joshua Hammer explains for Smithsonian , a pair of satellites tasked with measuring groundwater found that the basin lost the equivalent of...

'Valley Fever' Cases Surge in California, Arizona

Drought causing spread of fungus-laced spores

(Newser) - Public health officials in arid parts of the American West are battling a huge rise in cases of a dust-borne disease many people have never heard of. Valley fever is contracted when people breathe in fungus-laced spores, and the drier, warmer conditions of recent years have contributed to an 850%...

How Drought Is Killing This Texas Town

Plainview may not survive the loss of its residents: NYT

(Newser) - Texas is experiencing its third-worst drought since 1895, and the New York Times humanizes the environmental disaster today with the story of Plainview. The drought, which has gone on for two years now, is affecting cattle, and finally forced the town's largest employer, a Cargill beef-processing plant, to close...

Massive Storm Belting Midwest Has Silver Lining

It will ease the drought in hard-hit parts of the country: Weather Underground

(Newser) - With winter storm warnings and advisories being issued from western New Mexico to southwestern Virginia, officials fear they could be facing the worst storm to hit the central US since a massive system covered much of the country two years ago , reports the USA Today . Already, 8 inches of snow...

US Cattle Herd Smallest in Six Decades

Drought takes a toll in the heartland

(Newser) - The severe drought that scorched pastures across the American heartland last summer helped shrink the US cattle herd to its smallest size in more than six decades and encouraged the movement of animals to lusher fields in the north and west. The National Agricultural Statistics Service said today that the...

Century-Long Drought Was Mayans&#39; Undoing
 Century-Long Drought 
 Was Mayans' Undoing 
new study
Nov 9, 2012 8:18 AM CST

Century-Long Drought Was Mayans' Undoing

Civilization failed 'to adapt successfully to climate change': study

(Newser) - The Mayan civilization collapsed at the hands of "a nearly century-long drought," says a UK-based researcher following a new study that the AFP reports has confirmed an existing climate-change theory. The Mayans' rise and fall "is an example of a sophisticated civilization failing to adapt successfully to...

Relax, There's No More Peanut Shortage

Record crop numbers should mean plenty of peanut butter this year

(Newser) - Shoppers went a bit nutty earlier this year after two years of drought led to a peanut shortage that sent peanut butter prices skyward. But farmers are now growing the crop in record numbers, which should bring down supermarket prices, reports the Wall Street Journal . Areas in US where the...

Farm Exports to Drop $1B Over Drought

But one expert thinks the 1-year dip won't matter much

(Newser) - The nation's top agricultural negotiator said he expects farm exports to drop between $1 billion and $2 billion, though he doesn't think the one-year dip will drive away international buyers in the long run, reports the AP . Isi Siddiqui says the drought is to blame—less grain means...

In Record Drought, Nation's Farmers Twist in Wind

Depression, lost land, ditched vacations

(Newser) - The worst drought in decades has reached farming families' personal lives, making for a year very different than they might have expected. "You probably can’t print our mood," says a South Dakota rancher. "The wife says she can’t drink enough to dull the pain of...

GDP Growth Revised Down to Anemic 1.3%

On the bright side, jobless claims fell

(Newser) - US economic growth was even worse than we thought in the April-June quarter, growing at a pace of just 1.3%, the Commerce Department announced today, down from its previous estimate of 1.7%. About half of that big revision reflected the punishing effect the summer's drought has had...

Frackers Battle Farmers for Water Amid Drought

Gas companies scrambling to buy up supplies for drilling

(Newser) - The drought ravaging the heartland has thrown into stark relief an ongoing battle between farmers and energy companies for that most fundamental of resources: water. As the name implies, hydrofracking requires water, and lots of it—one well can use up to 5 million gallons—so gas companies are storming...

West Hit With &#39;Bear Epidemic&#39;
 West Hit With 'Bear Epidemic' 
Sep 4, 2012 2:41 PM CDT

West Hit With 'Bear Epidemic'

Drought fuels wave of bear burglaries

(Newser) - The drought ripping through the country is having a strange side-effect: Black bears are coming out of the woodwork to raid human homes and trash bins, in what ABC News dubs a "bear epidemic." Police in Aspen, Colorado, for instance, got 292 calls about bear intrusions in August...

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