Extreme Weather Events Destroy Crops in Georgia & the Carolinas

Crop disasters declared in 37 counties across three U.S. states

Lingering excessive heat, excessive rain and moisture have destroyed or damaged crops in at least 37 counties across three states: Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has designated 20 counties in Georgia as crop disaster area due to damages and losses caused by excessive rain and moisture that occurred from Aug. 24, 2015, and continues. Those counties are:

Appling, Brantley, Bulloch, Burke, Emanuel, Glynn, Jefferson, Jenkins, Johnson, Laurens, Long, McIntosh, Montgomery, Pierce, Screven, Tattnall, Toombs, Treutlen, Treutlen and Wayne.

USDA has also designated 17 counties across the Carolinas as crop disaster area due to damages and losses caused by drought and excessive heat that occurred from April 25, 2015, and continues. Those counties are:

North Carolina. Cabarrus, Davidson, Davie, Forsyth, Gaston, Iredell, Lincoln, Mecklenburg, Montgomery, Rowan, Stanly, Surry, Union, Wilkes and Yadkin.

South Carolina. Lancaster and York.

All counties listed above were designated natural disaster areas on Jan. 20, 2016.

Crop Disasters 2015

USDA declared crop disasters in at least 4,017 counties and county equivalents across 46 States [as well as Puerto Rico, and US Virgin Islands] in 2015. Those states are Arizona, Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Washington and Wyoming.

• About 99 percent of the 2015 crop disaster designations were due to drought last 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.

Related Links

• Multiple Crop Disasters Declared in Three U.S. States January 9, 2016
• Crop Disasters Declared in Five U.S. States December 24, 2015
• Crop Disasters Declared in North Carolina, Virginia December 19, 2015

• Multiple Crop Disasters Declared in Montana December 19, 2015
• Crop Disasters Declared in Alabama, Florida, Georgia December 10, 2015
• Crop Disasters Declared in the Carolinas December 3, 2015
• Crop Disasters Declared in Kansas December 3, 2015
• Multiple Crop Disasters Declared in Michigan and Ohio November 26, 2015
• Multiple Crop Disasters Declared in Six U.S. States November 22, 2015
• Drought
• Agricultural Disasters Index