The scarcity of irrigation water in drought-stricken California has created such a demand for well drilling services that Central Valley farmer Bob Smittcamp is taking matters into his own hands. He’s buying a drilling rig for $1 million to make …
Oklahoma hasn’t had a tornado or a tornado warning for more than eight months, though it is doubtful Oklahoma will be able to match its longest streak ever without a twister. Things have been unusually quiet through the first three …
An expected effect of drought has caught parts of the West off guard. Mini-storms of tumbleweed have invaded the drought-stricken prairie of southern Colorado, blocking rural roads and irrigation canals, and briefly barricading homes and an elementary school. The invasion …
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has added a southern Idaho county to its list of Idaho regions considered natural disaster areas because of drought. The department designated Elmore County a primary natural disaster area, making farmers and ranchers in the …
The threat of wildfire heightened by the state’s drought has prompted CalFire to beef up its seasonal firefighting ranks ahead of schedule. CalFire spokesman Daniel Berlant tells the Santa Rosa Press Democrat that several hundred seasonal firefighters are being brought …
The snowpack atop mountain peaks in California and Colorado has a new set of eyes watching from high above to better gauge the amount of water that will rumble down rivers and streams each spring as runoff. In a new …
A wall of dust as tall as 1,000 feet and 200 miles wide that roared across parts of West Texas and New Mexico is yet another sign of how rain-starved the region is. National Weather Service meteorologist Charles Aldrich in …
The state’s Drought Task Force says two recent storms that washed over drought-stricken California were welcome, but that the state still needs a lot more rain. California Natural Resources Agency Secretary John Laird said Tuesday that the state needs a …
With California in the grips of drought, farmers throughout the state are using a mysterious and some say foolhardy tool for locating underground water: dowsers, or water witches. Practitioners of dowsing use rudimentary tools – usually copper sticks or wooden …
With California’s agricultural heartland entrenched in drought, almond farmers are letting orchards dry up and in some cases making the tough call to have their trees torn out of the ground, leaving behind empty fields. In the California’s Central Valley, …
