Friday, August 10, 2012

Drought Continues Punishing Most of US

Drought across US pushing into the extreme and exceptional. It's getting worse across vast portions of the country, and it's a situation that hasn't been seen in decades.

Grain/corn prices are rising, the Mississippi River is approaching low levels that is already affecting traffic on the river (a major transit corridor for grain, produce, and goods), and there's no sign of a letup.

Oh, and the frackers need water for their natural gas/oil production. It's stressing aquifers and water supplies across the country. Without water, agricultural production will slow, and that will in turn have a ripple effect across the economies of agriculture-dependent states.

Closer to home, the NYC metro area is facing a rain deficit of about 7 inches since the beginning of the year. And last year was wetter than normal only because of the double whammy of Hurricane Irene and TS Lee, which dumped months worth of rain on the region in the span of a few days causing widespread flooding and massive amounts of damage.

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