Deadly Storms Destroy Tens of Thousands of Homes in Bihar, India

Winds of up to 200 km/hr flatten crops in Bihar’s corn belt

Severe cyclonic storms have killed about 50 people, left more than 100 others injured and destroyed 25,000 mud houses across 12 districts in the most populous region of Bihar state, East India.

“Crops at most places are flattened,” said the State Chief Minister after conducting an aerial survey of disaster areas.

“I have never seen this kind of destruction in 75 years. I had taken a loan to do farming but everything is destroyed now,” said a local farmer.

The storms destroyed their homes and livelihoods in a span of just 45 minutes, said a  report.

It wasn’t the rain, but the winds, which raked across the region with speeds of up to 200 km/hr for just an hour or so, that caused damage, said a local trader. “There has been large scale lodging [flattening] of standing maize crop. Apart from yield loss, there will also be quality deterioration of the grain, affecting prices.”

Corn Belt Drought Intensifies

Late growing season drought intensifies in Iowa, neighboring states: Report

Severe drought in Iowa increased to 32.07 percent up from 22.4 percent a week earlier, with 63.24 percent of the state covered in moderate drought or worse.

“After such an ideal start to the growing season, the past two months have been much drier than usual, with temperatures slowly increasing,” said David Miskus of U.S. Drought Monitor.

• Precipitation in central Iowa and northern Missouri was only 5 to 25 percent of normal, and as little as a tenth of an inch of rain.

• Iowa recorded its warmest week since July 2012, with highs of 104 degrees Fahrenheit at Des Moines and Fort Madison on Aug. 30.

• Iowa experienced its seventh driest August in 141 years of records, following the ninth driest July.

• Crop and pasture conditions began to deteriorate rapidly once heat was added to the dryness.

Small areas of severe drought also showed up in Illinois, Minnesota and Wisconsin this week.

• Drought also expanded or intensified in Mississippi, Oklahoma and on the Hawaiian island of Maui, during the week.

The portion of the drought-stricken areas in the U.S. corn belt increased from 45 to 52 percent during the week ending September 3, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s meteorologist Brad Rippey, the report said.

• Soybeans in drought also increased in the last week, from 38 to 42 percent.
• Corn and soybeans in drought bottomed out in July at 17 and 8 percent, respectively.
• Cattle in drought increased one percent to 53 percent.

“Given that U.S. producers planted an estimated 97.4 million acres of corn and 77.2 million acres of soybeans in 2013, current drought figures suggest that more than 50 million acres (nearly 80,000 square miles) of corn and some 32 million acres (more than 50,000 square miles) of soybeans are presently being affected by drought,” Rippey said.

“According to USDA, nearly one-sixth of the U.S. corn (16 percent) and soybeans (15 percent) were rated in very poor to poor condition on September 1. A year ago, near the height of the Drought of 2012, very poor to poor ratings stood at 52 percent of the corn and 37 percent of the soybeans.”

As Midwest continued to dry out, parts of the Southwest and West saw scattered improvements from the monsoon season.

Overall, the portion of the contiguous United States in moderate to exceptional drought crept up to 50.09 percent from 50.04 percent a week earlier.

• The total land area in moderate drought increased to 17.69 percent, up from 16.67 previously.

• The area in exceptional drought shrank to 1.25 percent, down 0.07 percent from last week.

Related Links

• U.S. Drought Expands Mainly in the South, High Plains August 29, 2013
• Agricultural Disasters Declared for 180 U.S. Counties August 29, 2013
• US: Drought Disaster 2013 [Index Page]
• Agricultural Disasters Index

Watching Events Unfold, Frame by Frame, Exactly as Forecast

Drought 2012 could linger for months

Corn and soybean prices break all-time records. Corn prices have climbed 53 percent in one month, as worst drought and poorest crop conditions in decades decimate yields in the Corn Belt region and beyond.

U.S. Drought Map for July 17, 2012, released July 19.

List of Disaster Areas Continues Growing

On Wednesday, USDA designated an additional 39 counties in 8 states as Primary Natural Disaster areas due to worsening drought, making up a disaster total of 1,297 counties in 29 states.  Additionally,  several hundred other counties have been declared as contiguous disaster areas.

One Way Drought

Drought is intensifying in the Corn Belt region and creeping to the areas beyond including Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and eastern Nebraska, eastern Kansas, southern Minnesota and parts of Missouri, Kentucky and the Dakotas.

Drought and Deluge Double Whammy

The historic drought could finally end in an epic deluge, in which case what is already extreme stress on the topsoil would be incalculable.

NASS Crop Production Data. Map of drought superimposed on the corn production areas, July 10, 2012.

Drought Stats

• Nearly two-thirds of Continental U.S. is currently in drought condition

• More than 42 percent of the lower 48 states were in SEVERE, EXTREME or EXCEPTIONAL Drought Conditions (D2-D4) as of July 17, 2012, a rise of over 5 percent since last week.

• As of July 17, 2012,  the entire Continental U.S. with the exception of Maine was experiencing Abnormally Dry or Drought Conditions (D0 -D4)  in full or in parts of the states, a situation which has since worsened due to scant precipitation and a persistent heat wave in the past few days.

• More than 81 percent of the Contiguous United States was Abnormally Dry or in Drought  Conditions (D0 – D4).
• Drought 2012 is considered as the worst drought since 1956 and worst agricultural drought since 1988.

• About 40% of the U.S. corn crop is in poor-very poor condition.
• Good-excellent soybean crop dropped to 34% – down from 56% at start of season.
• Some 1,297 counties in 29 states have been declared as primary natural disaster areas, with several hundred other counties designated as contiguous disaster areas.
• Less than 10 percent topsoil moisture is left in South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan.
• Topsoil moisture in the entire Central Region is below 50 percent of normal.
  • Drought is expected to persist or intensify across Central Region.
  • About 98 percent of corn is grown within Central Region.
• About 80 percent of corn grown in the U.S. is experiencing drought.

Deadly Heat Persists

Meantime, preliminary records from NCDC showed 145 high temperature records broken Wednesday and 67 records tied in 23 states: Connecticut, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Virginia, Vermont, Wisconsin and West Virginia.

High temperatures in the triple digits will be the norm for the next several days for parts of the central U.S., with heat indices reaching into the 110 degree range. Some NWS Forecast Offices have already extended their heat advisories to last through the middle of next week. Source: NWS

Daily Max Heat Index Forecast

Latest Related Posts

• U.S. Drought Continues to Spread, Intensify Posted July 19, 2012
• Another Heat Wave Grips America’s Heartland Posted July 18, 2012
• Drought Continues to Plague Two-Thirds of Continental U.S.  Posted July 17, 2012
• Drought and deluge 

Other Global Disasters/ Significant Events

• Fires ravage Madeira islands and mainland Portugal
• Nationwide Spanish protests turn violent
• Over a third of Fukushima children at risk of developing cancer  [Google, WordPress and others filtered/blocked/suppressed FIRE-EARTH warnings on Fukushima nuclear disaster.]
• 80 people still missing after a Tanzanian ferry sank near Zanzibar
• Over 2,000 houses inundated in flood in Nepal

Global Disasters: Links, Forecasts and Background

• The First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities
• Back to the Primordial Future
• The Fate of Energy Dinosaurs
• Mass Die-offs

• 2010 Disasters [Links to 2010 Disaster Calendar]
• Mega Disasters
• 2011 Disaster Calendar
• 2012 Disaster Calendar

Outbreak of Infectious Salmon Anemia Confirmed in Canada

Half million salmon to be destroyed due to infectious salmon anemia

An outbreak of infectious salmon anemia at a fish farm near Conne River in Newfoundland and Labrador has been confirmed by Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA).

The operators, Gray Aqua Group, have been ordered to destroy more than 450,000 salmon. They claim the virus is being contained to one site.

In March, CFIA ordered a Nova Scotia fish farm outside Shelburne Harbour to destroy hundreds of thousands of salmon following a similar outbreak.

Last month, another outbreak was suspected in Nova Scotia, but the tests were said to be ‘inconclusive.’

“Outbreaks of infectious salmon anemia in New Brunswick in the late 1990s dealt a blow to the aquaculture industry there at the time and the federal government provided tens of millions of dollars in compensation,” said a report.

Other Global Disasters/ Significant Events

• U.S. Corn Belt.  Drought and heat wave are affecting production of grain crops in the U.S. Corn Belt. Iowa and Illinois, which produce about 35% of the U.S. corn and soybeans, are particularly hard hit.
  • Drought conditions, have intensified since last week across the U.S. (see comparison map below) and already caused irrevocable damage to crops in southern Illinois, Indiana and Missouri.
  • “By Sunday or Monday, if we don’t get rain here, we will be losing anywhere between 7 to 9 percent of our yield potential,” said Roger Elmore, corn agronomist at Iowa State University in Ames. “If it drags on into next week, it is going to be worse.”
  • Abnormally Dry and Drought Conditions (D0 – D4) currently prevail in 76.33% of the contiguous United States, the largest area than at any other time since the U.S. Drought Monitor began more than 12 years ago.

U.S. Drought Map. Released July 5, 2012

‘Farming in Hell’

• As of July 1, crops were in the worst condition since 1988, as the Midwest heat wave last week set or tied nearly 1,100 temperature records.
• “The drought is much worse than last year and approaching the 1988 disaster. There are crops that won’t make it. The dairy and livestock industries are going to get hit very hard. People are just beginning to realize the depth of the problem,” according to the CEO of Rochester,  Prairie Mills Products LLC, an Indiana-based grain processor.
• The persistent drought has hit plants during the most vulnerable time in their growing cycle, killing their pollen.
• “Corn yields were falling five bushels a day during the past week” in the worst-affected parts of the Midwest, said Fred Below, a plant biologist at the University of Illinois in Urbana. “You couldn’t choreograph worse weather conditions for pollination. It’s like farming in hell.”

Krasnodar region, Russia.

• At least 171 lives have been lost in the devastating flooding and landslides in in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region, reported RT.
  • 17 others have been reported as missing.
  • “Some 584 people, 83 children among them, have sought medical aid following the flood. Medics have hospitalized 159 people, including sixteen children.”
  • At least 3,000 have been evacuated.
  • About 35,000 people have been affected by the disaster.

Global Disasters: Links, Forecasts and Background

• The First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities
• Back to the Primordial Future
• The Fate of Energy Dinosaurs
• Mass Die-offs

• 2010 Disasters [Links to 2010 Disaster Calendar]
• Mega Disasters
• 2011 Disaster Calendar
• 2012 Disaster Calendar