Drought Destroys More Crops in Florida, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Puerto Rico

Drought kills crops in the NW, SE and Puerto Rico

Drought Disaster Designations #1

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has designated Clallam and Jefferson counties in the State of Washington as crop disaster areas due to damages and losses caused by a recent drought.

Drought Disaster Designations #2

USDA) has designated additional counties in Oregon and Washington as crop disaster areas due to damages and losses caused by a recent drought.

• Oregon: Clackamas, Columbia, Hood River, Multnomah and Washington counties.
• Washington: Clark and Skamania counties.

Drought Disaster Designations #3

USDA has designated additional counties in Florida as crop disaster areas due to damages and losses caused by a recent drought. Those counties are Broward, Glades, Hendry, Martin, Okeechobee and Palm Beach.

Drought Disaster Designations #4

USDA has designated Maui, Kauai and Kalawao counties in Hawaii as drought disaster areas due to damages and losses caused by a recent drought.

Drought Disaster Designations #5

USDA has declared additional crop disasters in Puerto Rico. The following municipalites have been designated as crop disaster areas due to damages and losses caused by a recent drought.

Puerto Rico crop disaster areas: Barranquitas, Corozal, Morovis, Naranjito, Orocovis, Toa Alta and Vega Alta municipalities.

U.S. Drought Monitor – Weekly Comparison: Total U.S.

Week	None	D0-D4	D1-D4	D2-D4	D3-D4	D4
2015-08-18	50.64	49.36	27.82	15.22	7.85	2.51
2015-08-11	51.65	48.35	27.52	14.97	7.69	2.51

 

CONUS

Week	None	D0-D4	D1-D4	D2-D4	D3-D4	D4
2015-08-18	54.91	45.09	29.29	18.17	9.37	3.00
2015-08-11	56.13	43.87	28.92	17.87	9.18	3.00

 

Crop Disasters 2015

Beginning January 7, 2015 USDA has declared crop disasters in at least 2,047 counties,  county equivalents and municipalities, across 33 States and PR: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, Washington, Wyoming [and Puerto Rico.]

About 99 percent of the 2015 crop disaster designations are due to drought so far this year.

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 August 12, 2015.

Related Links

• Extreme Weather Events Destroy Crops in Ten States and Puerto Rico August 13, 2015
• Drought destroys crops in 5 states and Puerto Rico August 6, 2015
• Extreme Weather Events Destroy Crops in 10 States July 30, 2015
• 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
• Agricultural Disasters Index

Deadly Wildfires Burning in Pacific Northwest

Washington Gov. requests Major Disaster Declaration as wildfires kill 3 fire crews, injure 4

Gov. Inslee has requested a Federal Disaster Declaration for the State of Washington as 44 lightning-sparked wildfires that are raging uncontrollably kill 3 fire crews and injure at least 4 others.

“Currently 11 counties and 4 tribes are affected or threatened by fires with 39 confirmed residences and 60 other structures destroyed [and] over 235,000 acres burned,” said Inslee in his official request. “Over 3,600 homes remain threatened, and these numbers are increasing each day as the largest fires remain uncontained.”

“Washington State had a major disaster declaration on August 11, 2014 for Washington Wildfires (DR-4188) in Okanogan County from the Carlton Complex Fire. The impacts of this current event are likely to exacerbate the ongoing housing and economic recovery efforts from the declared disaster last year.”

On June 26, 2015, I issued a State of Emergency for the State of Washington for all 39 counties due to extraordinary heat and drought conditions across the state. These conditions have continue to worsen and exacerbated the threats posed by high fire danger weather conditions.

On August 13, 2015 a low pressure settled over central and eastern Washington that generated several hundred lightning strikes in a 6 hour period setting off numerous fires. This weather system remained in effect thru Saturday August 15, 2015. Gusty winds continue to effect these regions. Another similar system is moving into the region in the next 2 days with extreme high fire danger weather predicted.

There have been five Fire Management Assistance Grant declarations in the span of 36 hours with two additional approved Washington State Fire Mobilizations for Black Canyon/McFarland Creek Fires in Okanogan County and Renner Lake Fire in Stevens and Ferry Counties.

Thousands of people are under mandatory evacuation orders across the Pacific Northwest as more than 90 major wildfires rage across the region. At least a dozen wildfires are also burning across the South.

In Washington, several towns and communities have been evacuated including Omak, Riverside, Twisp, Winthrop and Conconully.

“It is really bad out there. The fires have just exploded,” a spokeswoman for the Okanogan County Department of Emergency Management, told the AP. “We’re just directing everybody to head south.”

In California, more than 2,500 people were forced to flee Christian camps near Fresno after Rough Fire crossed Highway 180, officials said.

Mandatory evacuations are also in effect in the states of Idaho and Oregon.

States currently reporting major wildfire include Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Montana, Nevada, North Carolina, Oregon, Texas and Washington.

Active fires are currently burning an estimated 1.5 million acres, and have consumed hundreds of homes and other structures so far this month.

Some 42,000 wildfires have consumed at least 7.2 million acres across the United States, so far this year.

Governors in California, Idaho, Montana and Oregon have declared States of Emergency due to the wildfires, so far this month.

The U.S. military is sending hundreds of personnel to the fire lines, as fire managers call in help from other countries.

Significant Earthquake Strikes Central Africa

M 5.1 Quake Strikes LAKE MWERU REGION, CONGO-ZAMBIA Border

Centered at 9.65S, 28.60E the quake occurred at a depth of about 2km, Emsc reported.

Earthquake Details
Magnitude: 5.1mb
Region LAKE MWERU REGION, CONGO-ZAMBIA
Date time: 2015-08-19 at 22:15:45.6 UTC
Location: 9.65S, 28.60E
Depth: 2km
Distances:

• 254 km NE of Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of the Congo [pop: 1,373,770]
• 174 km N of Mansa, Zambia [pop: 42,277]
• 37 km SW of Nchelenge, Zambia [pop: 23,693]