NY Times Front Page Notes Drought; But Texas Rain Possible Here This Weekend
Wednesday’s New York Times carries a front page article highlighting the southeast’s drought problems. Reported from Toney, Alabama, the article focuses on the problems farmers in northern Alabama are having with the lack of rain there. To its credit, the Times manages to quote in its article the director of the National Drought Mitigation Center, which produces the drought maps and forecasts that are frequently quoted here and elsewhere, saying that the lack of rain is probably not the result of climate change.
I’m sure that residents of Texas and Oklahoma would be happy to provide the Southeast with some rain right now—if they could. The story there looks somewhat biblical, with over 40 days of consecutive rainfall, and more predicted for at least the next five days. An acquaintance of mine attended a picnic along a river in Waco, Texas two weeks ago, and a week later, the picnic site was underwater.
There’s at least a reasonable possibility that the Atlanta area might see some of the rain pounding Texas over the weekend. Forecasters with the Weather Service in Peachtree City are taking the GFS model projections predicting a short wave out of the Texas low moving towards Atlanta with a grain of salt, since other forecast models aren’t saying the same thing. That’s why current forecasts call for a chance of rain on Saturday and Sunday, rather than likely precipitation. (They were also unwilling to accept model projections of highs only reaching the 70s earlier this week as well, even though that’s what we got).
Even if the forecast proves to be wrong, let’s hope that the rain reaches Alabama, where they are really hurting from the drought.
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