Drought Crop Disasters Declared in Six States
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has issued 47 additional county-level drought disaster designations across six states—California, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Arizona and Nevada—due to damages and losses caused by the worsening drought.
The drought disaster destinations are for the following areas:
California. Del Norte, Humboldt, Modoc and Siskiyou [multiple crop disaster designations, “MCDD”] counties.
Oregon. Baker [MCDD], Curry , Deschutes, Douglas, Grant, Harney, Jackson Josephine, Klamath, Lake, Lane and Malheur [MCDD] counties.
Idaho. Canyon, Cassia, Owyhee, Payetteand, and Washington counties.
Utah. Adams, Box Elder, Gem, Payette, Tooele and Washington counties.
Arizona. Gila, La Paz, Maricopa, Pima, Pinal, Yavapai and Yuma counties.
Nevada. Elko, Eureka, Humboldt [MCDD,] Lander, Nye, White Pine and Washoe counties.
Crop Disasters 2015
Beginning January 7, 2015 USDA has declared crop disasters in at least 995 counties across 20 states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Virginia and West Virginia.
Majority of the 2015 crop disaster designations so far are due to drought.
Crop Disasters 2014
In 2014, USDA declared crop disasters in at least 2,904 counties across 44 states. Most of the designations were due to drought.
Those states were:
Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan. Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. [FIRE-EARTH has documented all of the above listings. See blog content.]
Notes:
i. USDA trigger point for a countywide disaster declaration is 30 percent crop loss on at least one crop.
ii. The counties designated as agricultural disaster areas, as listed above, include both primary and contiguous disaster areas.
iii. Some counties may have been designated as crop disaster areas more than once due to multiple disasters.
iv. The U.S. has a total of 3,143 counties and county-equivalents.
v. The disaster designations posted above were approved by USDA on April 8, 2015 in five separate declarations.
U.S. Drought Continues Spreading
U.S. Drought Population Data. Source: U.S. Drought Monitor
Drought Severity
D0 – Abnormally Dry || D1 Drought – Moderate || D2 Drought – Severe || D3 Drought – Extreme || D4 Drought – Exceptional
California plagued by fourth consecutive year of drought
With temperatures averaging more than 10°F above normal for the week, snowpacks continued to dwindle; as of April 1, the state’s total snowpack stood at a meager 5 percent of average. Indicative of the virtually non-existent snowpack, streamflows have dropped into the 5th percentile or lower over much of California. In addition, the 2014-15 Water Year has ended on an abysmal note, with precipitation over the past 30 days totaling a mere 10 percent of normal or less from Redding southward. Continued dryness resulted in an expansion of Exceptional Drought (D4) in northwest California. [Source: U.S. Drought Monitor]
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