Droughts put crops at risk around the world
The government of North Korea this past week reported an "extremely severe drought crisis" that could worsen already critical food shortages across the country.
Farmers in some areas of central North Korea are calling the current drought "the worst in decades." A famine in the 1990s killed an estimated 700,000 people in the country.
North Korea's western coastal farm belt hasn't seen a decent rain since April 27. The 2012 planting season thus far has been "a bust," according to agricultural ministry sources.
Food supplies from last year's harvest are "almost gone." The U.S. government has refused to give food to North Korea due to Pyongyang's recent widely-criticized rocket launch that failed miserably, crashing into the ocean.
I should likewise mention that past appeals for food from North Korea have been met with skepticism, because much of the food aid has been diverted to the military without ever reaching the starving general population. Food distribution monitors were expelled by the North Korean government in 2009.
Elsewhere around the globe, our Harris-Mann Climatology correspondent, Sherland Hamilton, who has been traveling through Europe for the past several weeks, tells us that central and southern Italy are seeing "major crop losses due to parching drought." The corn is "wilting in the fields."
Farmers in southern Australia are likewise having to contend with extremely dry conditions, especially in the 'Big Bite' crop regions of the far south. There are worries that a strengthening 'El Nino' event in the waters of the Pacific Ocean in the next several months may lead to "a wide expansion of the drought pattern across the continent."
In South America, two consecutive years of parching drought have greatly reduced crops like wheat, corn and, particularly soybeans. Soybean prices recently exceeded $15-a-bushel in Chicago.
An intensifying El Nino phenomenon may likewise lead to at least a 'partial failure' of the 2012 'monsoon season' across both India and Pakistan. Only time will tell.
As things now stand in early June, the leading edge of the monsoon rains is far to the south of its normal positioning near Sri Lanka. Any northward expansion will be slow.
Next week in 'Gems,' Randy Mann and I will give our 2012 Atlantic and Caribbean Hurricane season outlooks. Stay tuned.
North Idaho weather outlook
The first six days of June was the wettest such period since the inception of local Coeur d'Alene weather record-keeping statistics 117 years ago in 1895.
A whopping 2.11 inches of moisture precipitated on the Lake City in the 144-hour period ending at 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday. That was .18 inches more rainfall than normally falls during an entire June in Coeur d'Alene, an average of 1.93 inches. This deluge also beat the previous record locally of 2.06 inches set in the first six days of June in 1971. Last June, during a similar wet and cool period, we gauged 2.12 inches of precipitation during the entire month.
Not only has it been wet in recent days, but we've seen record cold temperatures as well with measurable snows reported in the nearby mountains above 4,500 feet.
The afternoon maximum reading on Wednesday, June 6, was only 45 degrees, set just after 1 a.m. This beat the previous coolest high for the date of 53 degrees observed back in 1896, even before my time.
The 'good news' is, after another wet and chilly weekend, that we should be warming back up into the near-normal 70s this week with only widely scattered showers as a weak high pressure ridge builds into the Inland Northwest.
Late this June, we should warm up into the mid to upper 80s just in time for the annual 'Iron Man' event. But, water temperatures for the swimming competition will likewise be chilly again like last year.
The summer of 2012 still may be the warmest such season since 2006. Both Randy Mann and I see lots of 'Sholeh Days' at or above 90 degrees, especially in the 30-day span from mid July through mid August.
Total precipitation this summer should be well below normal. Most of the thunderstorm activity should occur mainly to the north and east of us over the mountains.
The weather for the late August 2012 NORTH IDAHO FAIR AND RODEO still looks good, warm and sunny with just a slight chance of an afternoon or evening thundershower. Temperatures, fortunately, shouldn't be quite as hot as in 2011.
Cliff Harris is a climatologist who writes a weekly column for The Press. His opinions are his own. Email sfharris@roadrunner.com
Weekly Weather Almanac
• Week's warmest temperature: 78 degrees on June 4
• Week's coldest temperature: 35 degrees on June 7
• Weekly precipitation: 2.25 inches (a new record for a week in June)
• Precipitation month to date: 2.68 inches
• Normal precipitation month to date: 0.71 inches
• Precipitation month to date last year: 0.48 inches
• Precipitation year to date: 23.32 inches
• Normal precipitation year to date: 12.73 inches
• Precipitation last year to date: 20.23 inches
• Normal annual precipitation: 26.77 inches
• Total precipitation last year: 31.62 inches
• Precipitation predicted this year: 35.93 inches
• Precipitation predicted in 2013: 28.40 inches
• Record annual precipitation: 38.77 inches in 1996
• All-time least annual precipitation: 15.18 inches in 1929
Readings taken week ending Sunday, 3 p.m., June 10