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Drought At Historic Levels; Rivers Near Record Lows
July 5, 2011
The drought in the North Escambia area has reached historic levels, and area rivers are reaching near all-time lows.
The latest U.S. Drought Monitor map shows all the area in an exceptional drought — the worst category possible. Portions of the area are 15-20 inches below normal rainfall. Coupled with hot temperatures and above-normal evaporation, the rainfall deficit has been helped little by scattered afternoon showers.
“This is a drought that has a historical frequency of once every 50 to 100 years,” according to the National Weather Service in Mobile.
The U.S. Drought Monitor is published by the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln using a variety of climatic data.
Rivers in the area are also approaching historic lows. At Century, the Escambia River was at 2.90 feet at 9:00 Monday night; the all-time record low level was 1.30 feet in 1954. The Perdido River at Barrineau Park was at 1.30 feet Sunday night. Low water records for the Perdido River are not available.
Pictured above: The Escambia River as seen from Fischer Landing in Century. During periods of flooding, the river will almost reach the bottom of the bridge. Pictured below: The Escambia River is approaching record low levels, with a pier to nowhere and a boat ramp that does not reach the water as seen at the Molino Boat Ramp on Fairgrounds Road.
Comments
13 Responses to “Drought At Historic Levels; Rivers Near Record Lows”
but that is not to say that man plays no part. ask yourself: what is hotter? concrete or grass? glass and metal or trees? now think of all the cities and highways all over the world that have been built and are being built in the last century. if we could shade all the high rises and apartments and concrete parking lots all over the world, it would have a dramatic effect on reducing the temperature in those areas, but it isnt realistic. we just need to work on materials that are not such huge heat sinks i reckon. in the meantime find a nice watering hole and take the family swimmin’. smile…
doofus, you are one funny dude. that being said, i am skeptical that any one thing (like deforestation) is causing climate change. bet you dollars to donuts that when it is all said and done we will find that many complex cycles and natural phenomena (increased acidity in the oceans and the resultant sea surface temp change) are working together to warm our planet. it has happened before in earth’s history and it has also been much colder at times. there have always been droughts and floods, let’s face it, we live on a fairly violent planet. but to deny or marginalize the fact that something is going on is silly. the ice caps are indeed melting, for instance, the sea lanes in the arctic are opening up and russia, canada and the usa are eyeing the potential for increased shipping up there with keen interest.
REGARDING:
“Scientists say one days’ deforestation is equivalent to the carbon footprint of eight million people flying to New York, as per Howells report.”
Cutting trees down does not in and of itself add carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. Burning the downed trees or letting them rot, DOES add carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.
In fact, a mature forest releases exactly as much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as it takes out of the atmosphere as older trees die and wood and leaves rot. So just being there doesn’t even help remove CO2 from the atmosphere.
To actually use a forest to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, you would need to cut down the trees and preserve them from decay and then replace them with new trees which would continue to remove CO2. Even if you used them as biofuel, you are just carbon neutral. You would have to protect them with preservative or possibly sink them in the ocean to avoid decay which converts cellulose to carbon dioxide and water.
David contemplating mass balance
Scientists say one days’ deforestation is equivalent to the carbon footprint of eight million people flying to New York, as per Howells report.
Check out Andrew Mitchell of GCP
I read a lot of scientific reports, and I am a firm believer of the connection
between global warming and deforestation.
Not to start anything either, just my personal beliefs, and those of many
others. I’m not talking about just the U.S., I’m talking about the world,
8 percent in the U.S. is just that (only 8 percent).
Kay,
not to start anything or burst your bubble, but you do realize that there are more trees on this planet now than there were 50 or 100 years ago, right?
“According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), “Forest growth nationally has exceeded harvest since the 1940s. In the United States, which contains 8 percent of the world’s forests, there are more trees than there were 100 years ago. By 1997, forest growth exceeded harvest by 42 percent and the volume of forest growth was 380 percent greater than it had been in 1920.” The greatest gains have been seen on the East Coast (with average volumes of wood per acre almost doubling since the ’50s) which was the area most heavily logged by European settlers beginning in the 1600s, soon after their arrival.”
so basically, why waste this “once in a 50 year” chance? we could clean out so much sludge, remove logs, and vines for our fishers, and make the overall experience to the rivers a much greater experience. <–I say do it.
I lost 26 trees a few years back during the drought of that summer.
They were all suppose to bloom really pretty in the spring. I just
keep on planting, but hey somebody has to do it. We are loosing
the rain forest at an alarming rate. I have wondered for some time
now if Everone in the world who owns property planted just 2 trees
if it would make some small different to our global warming.
We skied on a river when I was young every weekend. That was
a fun family thing to do on weekends. Maybe now all of us
should be taking our children out on weekends to plant trees, so
their children could again ski on a river on weekends. How long
before the fishing dries up too?
“SIGH’
Re: doofus
that was funny…………………..
Betchya can find and see some interesting stuff in the river bed now.
Would also be a good time to cut out log jams, yank out undesireable junk, etc. from the rivers.
Road Prison inmate labor, get-r-done.
I rember when I was a tennager and my Grandfather ran the Cotton Lake fish camp, The Lake was so low you could wade across it. I”m 60 years old now.
Lots of bare aluminium on my prop and lower unit, after last weekend. Perdido low!
BACK IN 10/31/2000 ESCAMBIA RIVER LEVEL WAS AT 2.82.
We’ll know it’s a record drought when the catfish have ticks…