Drought, the Dust Bowl and wildfires - a history

Last month we looked at our June heat wave that was created by a heat dome. The drought we are currently in was written about as well. In this column I will take a deeper dive into drought with a look back at historic droughts in the nation.

Put your hiking boots on and let’s take a dusty walk back into history and look at droughts from our North American past. Scientists and historians have done the research and have shared their results of major droughts here in the United States. As their research continues, it’s likely the drought we are currently in will be added to the list.

Prehistorically, there were megadroughts in what we call North America. The Fairbank Drought (500 BC) as well as the Whitewater Drought (330 AD). The Southwest of what we call America experienced a megadrought from 1276 through 1299 C.E. and had an overwhelming impact on Pueblo cities of that region. The megadroughts that occurred during the 12th and 13th centuries exceeded those of the 20th century, such as the Dust Bowl of the 1930s and the drought of the 1950s.

Recent tree ring research, dendrochronology, is showing that during the first 20 years of the 21st century, we are experiencing conditions comparable to the megadrought of centuries past. These researchers also state these conditions are further intensified by human activity, anthropogenic greenhouse gases emissions.

The drought of the 1930s lasted for nearly 10 years in some regions. The Dust Bowl as it is now known, wreaked havoc with iconic images of massive dust storms across the Great Plains. Severe drought and poor farming techniques made tens of millions of acres of farmland unusable. Great migrations of families packed up and headed to regions unaffected like the West Coast. Those migrating created intense competition for jobs and shelter. Banks closed their doors. The National Drought Mitigation Center has reported that federal government assistance may have been as high as $1 billion dollars at the time.

Here is a condensed rundown through the decades of drought. 1940s – Drought in the Southwest United States ran from 1944 through the decade and into the ‘50s. 1950s – Drought in the Southwest, Texas spreads into the Central Plains and Midwest. Southern California water resources strained. 1960s – Drought in the Northeast lasted for nearly five years. Drought reached into the Midwest and Great Plains. Southern California recorded its worst drought in the 20th century in 1961. 1970s – Short term droughts hit various regions. California snowpack hit all-time low. Drought reversed the following year. 1980s – A series of droughts hit many regions of the United States. 1983 was then Ohio’s driest year. The southeast was hit hard from 1985-87. Long drought in the 1980s in the western United States. Thousands of people died from the heat. Massive heat waves hit much of the country. The 1988 drought registered worse than the Dust Bowl, with economic impact in the billions of dollars. 1990s – Southeastern United States hit with drought. Drought conditions also in the northeastern U.S. in 1999. Conditions were similar to the 1960s drought.

We are now two decades into the 21st century. We have seen the reports and read about the effects of the drought during this period. We are currently living in a drought. A reminder, 2015 was Washington state’s worst wildfire season. “The Okanogan Complex, Tunk Block, North Star, and Chelan Complex fires were the state’s four largest fires in 2015. The root causes were, according to the Washington Department of Natural Resources (DNR), “the warmest Washington summer on record, ... a vanishing snowpack ... and years of persistent drought,” which all added up to what DNR called “Washington’s worst wildfire season in human memory, with more than a million acres burned,” according to Historylink.org.

Wildfires have become more intense and deadly. Wildfire “season” in some regions is now a year-round management and operational issue.

Here’s a recap of weather data for the month of July 2021. These data sets are from my personal home weather station. Precipitation was measured at 0.04 inches. Least amount of precipitation was in 2017 at zero, and the all-time high was in 1993 at 2.94 inches. Note: For the first two months of summer 2021, June and July, we’ve only had 0.55 inches as measured at the local official weather site. The high temperature for the month of July was 107.4˚F. The all-time high temperature was 113˚F in 1939 (Dust Bowl era). We had a total of seven days above 100˚F and 26 days at or above 90˚F. The mean high temperature for July is 100˚F. The low temperature was 53.6˚F, and the month mean was 81.2˚F. The all-time low was 32˚F in 1983.