drought News

California Water Use Up Dramatically Amid Worsening Drought

California’s water use jumped dramatically in March, state officials said Tuesday, as one of the driest stretches on record prompted a wave of homeowners to start watering their lawns earlier than usual in defiance of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s pleas for …

Extreme Weather Threatens Global Wheat Crops – With One Notable Exception

As Russia’s invasion chokes off Ukrainian wheat exports, pushing up bread and noodle prices, the global harvest faces an added test: extreme weather. Droughts, flooding and heatwaves threaten output from the U.S. to France and India, compounding shrinking production in …

Drought in Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas Opens Loans for Farmers

The U.S. Department of Agriculture says drought during the growing season has made farmers in most of Texas, all of Louisiana and parts of Arkansas and Mississippi eligible to apply for federal aid. The department’s Farm Service Agency says low-interest …

New Mexico Residents Brace for Extreme Wildfire Conditions

With the worst of the thick wildfire smoke having blown out of town, residents of this small northern New Mexico city tried to recapture a sense of normalcy Saturday as their rural neighbors hunkered down amid predictions of extreme fire …

Financial Services Firms Face Losses of $225B From Variety of Water Risks: Report

Financial institutions face losses of at least $225 billion from risks related to water, with a third of them doing nothing to assess the potential impact, a report by leading environmental disclosure platform CDP and Planet Tracker estimates. The U.N. …

Report Forecasts ‘Above-Normal’ U.S. Wildfire Season, Worse in Drought-Plagued West

The U.S. has in store an “above-normal” wildfire season if a prediction out on Wednesday from fire weather experts holds true – “intense” may be a better word for the expectations in Western region. Early predictions for the 2022 fire …

Southwest Colorado Farmers Plagued by Drought

With his hands stuffed deep into his pockets, Landan Wilson looks down at the ground and scuffs his boot back and forth against the loose blades of alfalfa hay scattered on the dirt. It’s early March, and Wilson is standing …

California Drought Deepening as Wet Season is Anything But

California is experiencing one of the driest starts to spring in decades, data showed Friday, and absent a heavy dose of April and May showers the state’s drought will deepen and that could lead to stricter rules on water use …

Climate Change Could Cost U.S. Budget $2 Trillion a Year by End Century

Flood, fire, and drought fueled by climate change could take a massive bite out of the U.S. federal budget per year by the end of the century, the White House said in its first ever such assessment on Sunday. The …

5th Oregon County Declares Drought Emergency

Low water storage and snowpack levels in southern Oregon have prompted a fifth Oregon county to declare a drought emergency. Oregon Public Broadcasting reports Jackson County commissioners made the drought declaration, which follows declarations by Klamath, Jefferson, Morrow and Crook …