Recent rains have come to the Canadian dustbowl, and have put down those dirty thirty style dust storms, but it remains to be seen whether these rains will be enough to dent the drought. I have not been able to locate further reports on the status of the out of control Canadian forest fires, one of which was 2,000 square kilometers in size. The rains which came pretty much avoided the burning areas which suggests that the fires are still burning, but I still need to confirm if this is the case. The rains also hugged the 49th parallel staying on the Canadian side of the border which I found strange. The most recent results show some improvement on the pasturelands, from 'completely ruined' to 'poor' which is an improvement, and farmers are sounding more optimistic, although some have been flooded (when heavy rains come to drought stricken soil, it often causes initial flooding as the ground is to hard to absorb the water.)




Some improvement for Canada in June, 2002


The drought indicators for the United States all show that drought conditions have worsened since the end of April. The maps below show the low relative humidity in the west during the month of June. These maps mimic those of last year, with the low humidity and drought conditions producing the bone dry forests of this year (see the page Mountain drought for the images from last year, and also the page Summer is over, harvest is past, and we are not saved for a report on last years Canadian drought.




Low relative humidity in June, 2002


Both the Palmer Long Term Drought Index and the Drought Monitor show expanding drought in the last two months. The deepest orange color on the Palmer shows 'extreme and exceptional drought' while the next lightest shade of orange shows 'severe drought'. What is remarkable is the way the exceptionally severe drought has been rapidly spreading. The pattern is reproduced on all the various drought maps.




Drought Monitor, March 2002 and current for June 10th, 2002





Palmer long term drought map, May 11, June 15th
showing deterioration over last month






Drought Monitor, summer 2001, Spring 2002, June 18th 2002


The Rodeo fire in Arizona continues to burn out of control, and fire fighters have abandoned fighting the blaze until conditions are more favorable. The fire burned 19, 500 acres of bone dry Ponderosa pines and juniper on the morning of Thursday June 20, 2002. Thousands of people were evacuated from their homes and thousands of others put on an evacuation alert.

By late may wild fires had already scorched nearly three times the yearly average of timber in Colorado and now with the official fire season just starting as much timber has already burned in Colorado as burns in a typical year, and months of burning weather remain, in what has already been called the worst year for wild fires ever. According to the the Gov. of Arizona the Rodeo fire is probably the worst in Arizona's history.

according to an AP wire story wildfires are raging out of control in Colorado and California, burning their way through tinder dry forests and threatening homes. As of the end of the first week of June 20 large fires were burning in 11 states. A story on the weather network site suggests that http://www.weather.com/newscenter/topstories/recreation/nparks/020614xnpksxdroughtupdate.html the drought is persist throughout the summer in the American west, and with double the average acres already burned nationally this is also a bad omen for fires for the rest of the year, now that the heat is building, with forests bone dry, and the humidity remaining low, often times in the single digits, the weather pattern which is settling in is making for a wild season of wild fires that are already breaking records early in the season.

As of Thursday, June 20, 2002, 1,837,500 acres have burned accross the U.S. which is more than double the ten year national average. The fire weather forecast states that "A fire weather watch has been issued in southwest Utah for strong winds, low relative humidity and high Haines Index. Northwestern Colorado will have isolated dry thunderstorms and increased relative humidity. Eastern Colorado is expected to have scattered showers with a chance of thunderstorms and hail. Southern California and the remaining Southwest will continue to have sunny skies with hot, dry weather. Northeastern Nevada, central Utah and areas in northeastern Wyoming are predicted to have wet and dry thunderstorms throughout the day. Fire conditions remain very high to extreme in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Kansas, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Utah and Washington and Wyoming."



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Related pages...

      Wild fire report, June 20, 2002

      On the Weather Channel site : American drought to persist throughout summer

      Wild Fire Watch

      Drought Watch

      Jeremiah's drought prophecy

      Dustbowl - Dirty 30s revisited

 &nb sp;    Dust Storm snapshots May 29, 2002 - The return of Feudalism?