More extreme weather seen across the country

Our pattern of Wide Weather 'Extremes' continues across the globe. Here in the Inland Northwest, the first 12 days of May were the driest in recorded history at many stations. We finally received some much-needed rain showers on Wednes-day, but most precipitation totals were less than .30 inches.

Last weekend, a strong and slow-moving storm system spawned approximately 100 tornadoes in eastern Colorado, southwestern Nebraska, northwestern Kansas, South Dakota, Iowa, Oklahoma, Texas and Arkansas. Communities in northeastern Texas and southwestern Arkansas were especially hit hard. One of the twisters caused "five miles of destruction" as it destroyed homes and buildings about 100 miles west of Fort Worth, Texas.

In addition to the tornadic activity, flash flooding was reported in northern and central Texas with the heaviest rainfall to the southeast of Dallas. Over 8 inches of rain fell in some areas, within a period of six hours. Prior to this massive storm, severe drought conditions plagued much of Texas and Oklahoma. The ripening winter wheat crop has been severely damaged as well by large-sized hail.

To the far north, record-breaking snows were reported in the Dakotas as over 8 inches of the white stuff was reported in Rapid City, S.D. More than a foot of snow blanketed the Black Hills in western South Dakota. Nearly 18 inches of snow fell in southern Colorado over the weekend. Even Southern California received some very rare May snowfalls in the mountains with rain and hail in the lower elevations on May 8 and 14.

Unfortunately, as we've been mentioning, the recent moisture in California is "too little, too late." For the season, moisture totals are about 70 to 90 percent of normal. The rainy season in the Golden State begins in November and continues into April. The late spring, summer and early fall seasons are usually dry. But, this year, thanks to the surprising sudden intensification of El Nino, the warm-water phenomenon, San Francisco has picked up more rainfall this May than during the month of January, which was totally dry. This has never happened before in recorded history.

Elsewhere, the first named tropical storm of the season, Ana, made landfall early on Sunday in South Carolina. Strong winds and heavy rainfall were reported. The tropical storm and hurricane season normally begins on June 1, so it appears we're off to an early start. But, with the weak El Nino, the season is expected to have less named storms. The normal is 11. By the way, in 2012, tropical storm activity was early as well, which led to the worst drought in the Midwest since at least 1936 as moisture was pulled out of the area into the southeastern U.S.

This pattern of 'extremes' has also been creating numerous problems for crops around the world. In addition to damage caused by droughts, floods, heat and cold, fields are becoming too salty to sustain profitability. Research shows that more than 150 million acres of irrigated land have become too salty for farming around the world.

Salt naturally builds up in soils and poor drainage can cause it to linger, especially in regions where there is too little rainfall. Salt tends to build up around a plant's root system. Eventually it becomes almost impossible to grow crops in extremely salty regions.

According to an article in Smithsonian.com, "about 7.7 square miles of land in arid and semi-arid parts of the world is lost to salinization every day." The article also stated that in the U.S., about $750 million has been lost due to salt toxicity.

Some scientists say, however, that this toxic salt problem can be reversed by increased tree planting, proper crop rotation and using salt-tolerant plants. Better field drainage will also help.

NORTH IDAHO WEATHER REVIEW AND LONG-RANGE OUTLOOKS

As I wrote this weekly North Idaho weather update early Thursday, it was cool and sunny following the first measurable moisture in the month of May on Wednesday.

We only received .29 inches of rain on May 13, but that was more precipitation in the Coeur d'Alene area than had been previously measured in more than a full month in town.

The near-term weather outlook calls for brief showers and perhaps a thunderstorm or two in the next week to 10 days. But, it will be partly sunny between the rainy episodes and temperatures should reach the lower 70s during the mid to late afternoon hours.

The long-range weather outlook for the upcoming six weeks extending into early July predicts more "sun and showers." Remember, we certainly need the added moisture ahead of what promises to be a long and rather hot summer of 2015 in the Inland Northwest.

I'm expecting that we will have dangerous fire danger levels this year well into the autumn months, as a strong high pressure ridge camps in a stationary position east of the Cascade Mountains and west of the Rockies. I'll have more details on this mounting wildfire threat as the summer approaches.

Cliff Harris is a climatologist who writes a weekly column for The Press. His opinions are his own. Email sfharris@roadrunner.com