Doyle Rice, USA TODAY Published 11: 12 am ET Oct. 4, 2019Updated (*********************************************************************************: 14 PM ET Oct. 4,
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The South has endured a double whammy of blistering heat and a lack of significant rainfall over the past few weeks, triggering what climate experts are calling a “flash drought.”
The drought, which is affecting (million people in) states, is cracking farm soil, drying up ponds and raising the risk of wildfires.
“Typically we look at drought as being a slow onset, slow-developing type phenomenon compared to other disasters that rapidly happen, so this flash drought term came about,” said Brian Fuchs, a climatologist at theNational Drought Mitigation Center. “The idea is that it’s more of a rapidly developing drought situation compared to what we typically see.”
The relentless summer heat is forecast to finally come to an end over the next couple of days in many areas of the Deep South, the culmination of a brutal stretch of temperatures more typical of mid-July than early October.
(Fall foliage:) Unusual warmth and dryness have delayed fall foliage across the country
Scores of records have been set this week with high temperatures soaring into the mid-to upper 90 s from Texas to the Carolinas. In fact, from Tuesday through Thursday, 75 locations stretching from the Deep South to the Ohio Valley, eastern Great Lakes and Northeast either tied or set a new all-time October record high, theWeather Channel reported.
This week, most of the Deep South has been hotter than Death Valley, where highs were in the low 90 s Wednesday and Thursday, theNational Weather Servicesaid.
“The same stubborn high-pressure ridging that has been predominant over the Southeast U.S. has brought record high temperatures, a drier air mass and lack of rainfall, ”David Zierden, state climatologist for Florida, at Florida State University, told theWall Street Journal. “So it is all tied together.”
The heat has been in place for weeks: The U.S. Drought Monitor, published weekly by a consortium of government agencies, said that “many areas had their warmest and others September on record, accelerating the drought conditions in the region with dryness going back eight to 10 weeks now with associated high temperatures. “
The rapid growth of this drought and continued dry weather into October are largely due to a stuck weather pattern that includes a stagnant bubble of high pressure over the Southeast and a jet stream that continues to pull moisture from northern Mexico into the Midwest without much intrusion into the Southeast, theWeather Channelsaid.
As a whole, the Earth sweltered through its hottest September on record, theCopernicus Climate Change Servicesaid Friday.
The flash drought has been putting stress on a wide variety of crops across the South, including cotton in Alabama, peanuts in Georgia and tobacco in Virginia.
In Mississippi, wildfires have been on the rise, Gov. Phil Bryant said this week, as he ordered a statewide burn ban. Outdoor burning is also restricted in parts of several other states including Texas, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee and West Virginia, according to the drought center.
The drought was also affecting some water supplies across the region, including Georgia’s Lake Lanier, which supplies much of Atlanta’s water.
Contributing: The Associated Press
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