Extreme Weather Events Destroy Crops in 10 States

Drought, excessive rain, tornadoes… destroy crops in 104 counties across 10 states

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has designated 104  counties and parishes across ten  states—Arkansas, Idaho, Louisiana,  Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, Oklahoma, Texas and Utah—as crop disaster areas due to damages and losses caused by extreme weather events.

Crop Disaster Designation #1

USDA has designated 17 counties in six states as crop disaster areas due to damages and losses caused by a recent drought.

State of Idaho: Benewah, Blaine, Bonner, Cassia, Clearwater, Jerome, Kootenai, Latah, Minidoka, Oneida, Power, Shoshone and Twin Falls counties.

Montana: Mineral and Sanders counties.

Nevada: Elko County.

Utah: Box Elder County.

Crop Disaster Designation #2

USDA has designated 87 counties in six states as crop disaster areas due to the combined effects of excessive rain, flash flooding, flooding, hail, high winds, lightning and tornadoes that occurred during the period of March 1, 2015, and continues.

State of Arkansas: Arkansas, Baxter, Benton, Boone, Carroll, Clark, Clay, Cleburne, Cleveland, Columbia, Conway, Craighead, Crawford, Crittenden, Cross, Desha, Faulkner, Franklin, Fulton, Garland, Grant, Greene, Hempstead, Howard, Independence, Izard, Jackson, Jefferson, Johnson, Lafayette, Lawrence, Lee, Lincoln, Little River, Logan, Lonoke, Madison, Miller, Mississippi, Monroe, Montgomery, Nevada, Newton, Ouachita, Perry, Phillips, Pike, Poinsett, Polk, Pope, Prairie, Pulaski, Randolph, Saline, Scott, Searcy, Sebastian, Sevier, Sharp, St. Francis, Stone, Union, Van Buren, Washington, White, Woodruff and Yell counties.

Louisiana: Bossier, Caddo, Claiborne and Webster parishes.

Mississippi: Bolivar, Coahoma and Tunica counties.

Missouri: Barry, Dunklin, Howell, Oregon, Ozark, Taney and Stone counties.

Oklahoma: Adair, Le Flore, McCurtain and Sequoyah counties.

Texas: Bowie and Cass counties.

Crop Disasters 2015

Beginning January 7, 2015 USDA has declared crop disasters in at least 1,604 counties, or county equivalents, across 26 States: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, Washington and Wyoming.

USDA has also designated 14 municipalities in Puerto Rico as drought disaster areas.

About 99 percent 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 July 29, 2015 .

Related Links

• Crop Disasters Declared in Six States July 23, 2015
• Drought Destroys Crops in Florida, Idaho , Montana, Utah, Washington & Puerto Rico  July 16, 2015
• U.S. Drought: Crop Disaster Declared for Idaho Counties July 10, 2015
• Drought Destroys Crops in Six U.S. States July 2, 2015
• Drought and Deluge, Hail and Severe Freezing Destroy Crops in 7 States June 25, 2015
• Drought
• Agricultural Disasters Index