Drought
S


Info

Adapt 2030 Ice Age Report: Is the world starting to repeat 1970's style winters & summers?

SOTT global cooling
© YouTube/Adapt 2030 (screen capture)
After earliest ever snow recorded in Japan, now reports of Aug 12 snows in Georgia along the Black Sea and near freezing temperatures in Alaska with Arctic temperatures below freezing in the same areas. Are we getting ready to repeat 1970's style winters where Buffalo was buried and Iran got 24 feet of snow in one storm. It looks as if the sunspot count reflects this as we descend deeper into the grand solar minimum.


Comment: Related articles include:


Attention

Ice Age Farmer Report: 'Seismic' geopolitical changes as Ring of Fire explodes in activity

crops
Powerful seismic activity around the Ring of Fire, as Russia offers 2.5mil acres to China for growing soybeans. What a nice gesture..? Meanwhile, New Zealand is trying to keep China (and others) OUT of their farmland. Temps have dropped but the drought in East Australia persists - it's big news, and has kids emptying their piggy banks to feed cattle. Christian breaks it down.


Sources

Sun

Record drought in Denmark causes 40% drop in crop yield, $1billion in losses, and wave of bankruptcies

denmark drought 2018
Denmark's harvest of wheat, barley and rye could fall by about 40 percent from previous years as farmers suffer one of the hottest and driest summers on record, a lobby group said on Thursday.

A prolonged heatwave and lack of rain have also severely damaged crops in countries such as France, Germany and Sweden, as well as the Baltic states.

The lower harvest will result in losses for Danish farmers of 6.4 billion Danish crowns ($995 million), the Danish Agriculture & Food Council said.

As a consequence, the country's government on Thursday set out aid measures for drought-afflicted farmers to ensure they can collect enough fodder for their animals and have more time to sow certain crops usually limited to summer sowing.

The government stopped short of offering any direct financial help, but said it was concerned about a wave of bankruptcies.

Comment: It's not really the 'heat' that's the problem, it's the lack of rain. Meanwhile, in other areas of Europe have had above average rainfall, as noted on the drought map below.

See also:
drought map



Attention

Adapt 2030 Ice Age Report: Australian media lies about record hot July and wheat crop wipeout

drought
Trustworthy Australian media claims July 2018 as the hottest month ever in the country, but even the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) says its 2nd warmest day time highs, and 5th warmest mean since records began.

Australia's drought is set to significantly worsen as well based on past patterns of climate on longer multi-century and multi-millennia cycles.

South America was below normal temperatures overall for July 2018.


Sources

Sun

Price of potatoes to soar 900% in Belgium as drought and high temps kill crops

potato heatwave
© Kait Bolongaro/POLITICOFarmer Johan Geleyns is one of the many potato farmers feeling the heat this summer | Kait Bolongaro/POLITICO
Food vendors in Belgium are praying for rain as the hot weather threatens the supply of the country's national dish, frites.

The Europe-wide heatwave has shrunk Belgium's early crop of potatoes by about one-third compared with an average year. Without significant rainfall over the next few weeks, the key September and October harvests could be smaller still.

The heat impacts not only the yield, but the size of the potatoes and the roughness of their skins. If they are too tough, they cannot be handled by the peeling machines used by chip manufacturers.

The price of the bintje potato, the traditional variety used in creating the frite, or frieten, as people say in the Flemish-speaking north of the country where the crisis has most been felt, has already shot up. And it is likely to rise further, turning the cheap Belgian snack into a rather expensive one.

Bernard Lefèvre, the president of Unafri-Navefri, the stallowners' association, told Politico: "It's a subject that is at the heart of our job.

Comment: There is barely a crop or livestock on the planet that isn't being affected by these shifts in seasons and extreme weather patterns:


Cow Skull

Australia's most populous state suffering worst drought in more than 50 years

Australia drought
© David Gray/ReutersSome farmers have been forced to shoot livestock as grazeable land and crops become increasingly scarce
Australia's most populous state is now "100 percent" in drought following the most intense dry spell in more than 50 years.

New South Wales officials released figures on Wednesday showing that every part of the state is affected, with almost one-quarter classified as being in "intense drought".

Less than 10 millimetres of rainfall has been recorded in the 800,000-square kilometre state over the past month.

"There isn't a person in the state that isn't hoping to see some rain for our farmers and regional communities," Niall Blair, minister for primary industries, said in a statement.

Dry conditions are expected to continue for the next three months.

Farmers are among the hardest hit by the drought, which is the driest and most widespread in the state since 1965.


Comment: Farmers around the world are facing an endless torrent of extreme weather, from brutal cold and record breaking rainfall that delay planting, devastating drought that lead to lower yield, or destructive hail and early frost that completely decimate the crop: As more crops fail the likelihood of food price rises invariably increases. It is always best to be prepared. See also: And do have a listen to the SOTT Talk Radio show that was devoted to this subject:

Surviving the End of the World (as we Know it)


Attention

EU worst fruit and veg crisis for 40 years due to erratic seasons and extreme weather

drought map europe 2018
© EC/CopernicusCombined Drought Indicator, based on SPI, soil moisture and fAPAR. Watch: when a relevant precipitation shortage is observed. Warning: when this precipitation translates into a soil moisture anomaly. Alert: when these two conditions are accompanied by an anomaly in the vegetation condition.
The European vegetable processing sector raised concerns last month about potential losses to crop quantity and quality as a result of the very hot summer and prolonged drought conditions in all leading European production regions. Today, these regions have been affected by exceptional weather conditions, where crop evaporation levels have been exceptionally high, many watercourses have run dry, and extraction of irrigation water has frequently been restricted.

With the hot and dry weather continuing throughout July across most parts of the continent, vegetables have continued to suffer and crop yields have fallen sharply. Today the situation for vegetable growers and processors is the most serious that has been experienced in the last forty years, according to the European Association of Fruit and Vegetable Processors (PROFEL).

In addition, 2018 is the third year in a row that the sector has faced serious weather-related issues, exposing the vulnerability of European vegetable growers and processors to changing European weather patterns.

Comment: Spring planting was delayed by frosts and relentless rainfall, now summer is here and farmers are battling with drought causing low yield, and hail so big it decimates crops. And as the changes to weather patterns affect even larger areas and with successive years, prices are rocketing, there's food shortages across the board, and it's set to get even worse: And while some areas suffer through extreme drought, other areas are inundated by torrential rain - and some get both:

Switzerland


Turkey





Stock Down

"World weather issues" see rise in grain prices with lowest global yield in five years

hail barley damage
Barley damaged in hail storm south of High River, Calgary, on Monday, July 30.
Feed wheat prices rose by almost £4/t in just two days, with the spot ex-farm value averaging £181.23/t towards midday on Friday (3 August).

November futures touched £200/t during the week and stood at £192.25/t at lunchtime on Friday.

On the same day, the AHDB estimated wheat yields at 5-8% below the five-year average of 8.2t/ha. This would give a harvest of 13.3-13.7m tonnes, the lowest for five years.

With the GB winter wheat harvest estimated at about 25% complete, there is caution around the figures.

Comment: Farmers are facing an endless torrent of weather related disasters, from brutal cold and record breaking rainfall that delay planting, devastating drought that lead to lower yield, or destructive hail and early frost that completely decimate the crop: Also check out SOTT's monthly documentary: SOTT Earth Changes Summary - June 2018: Extreme Weather, Planetary Upheaval, Meteor Fireballs


Sun

Unprecedented drought in the Korea's kills 29 people, millions of livestock and decimates crops

drought korea
© Kim Kwang Hyon/APTemperatures have reached more than 40C in some regions of North Korea since late July.
The North Korean government has called on its people to wage an "all-out battle" against a record heatwave as the country's already fragile crops face drought and the authorities struggle to respond.

The drought represented an "unprecedented natural disaster", reported the Rodong Sinmun newspaper, the mouthpiece of the ruling Workers' party. It urged citizens to "join the struggle" to save food production in a country that is no stranger to famine. Temperatures have reached more than 40C (104F) in some regions since late July and there have been sporadic reports of deaths from the heat.

"This high-temperature phenomenon is the largest, unprecedented natural disaster, but not an obstacle we cannot overcome," a commentary in Rodong Sinmun said. "Extreme high temperatures and droughts have begun affecting farming crops, including rice and corn. We should muster all our power and capacity to fight high temperatures and droughts."


Comment: The Guardian is well known for peddling the much discredited theory of Globull Warming and so it's expected that the main thrust of their story would be that the heat is to blame for this natural disaster, but it should be borne in mind that it's probably not the 'heat' that has killed the cattle and crops, but the drought.


Comment: Record breaking drought conditions all over the world are making the headlines this year, meanwhile so are stories of torrential rains causing dams to burst:


Sun

Devastating drought, heat wave hammer farms across northern Europe

Algarheim in Akershus. drought norway
© Fredrik Hagen / NTB scanpixAlgarheim in Akershus.
Brown is the color of summer in northern Europe this year.

Fields that are usually covered in lush green grass have now turned to dust, trees are shedding their leaves and animals eating dry hay or grain instead of grazing in pastures.

Farmers in around a dozen countries — from Ireland to the Baltics — are grappling with a once-in-a-generation drought. The unrelenting heat wave has devastated crops, with more than half of the harvest expected to be lost in some areas.

"I have never seen this type of hot and dry weather, and I've been farming over 30 years," Max Schulman told NBC News from his farm about 35 miles outside of Helsinki, where he grows beans, oats, wheat and oilseeds.


Schulman says his farm has received just 3 inches of rain since the end of April, compared with 10 to 14 inches most years.