Tagged: drought

The winter storm that dumped several inches of snow and ice across much of Missouri may bring some short-term relief to the state’s drought conditions.

Kelly Smith is Director of Marketing and Commodities for the Missouri Farm Bureau.  He says the winter storm arrived on the heels of recent rain events, helping saturate the soil.

“This snow is gonna slowly melt into the ground," Smith said.  "We will get some runoff from it in some areas because they got a 10 to 13-inch snow…we had areas in our state as high as 13, maybe even 15, inches up in north of (the) Kansas City area.”

The 2012 drought was among the most extreme the country has seen in recent memory, including the hottest July on record.

Climate scientists at the University of Missouri are predicting that the coming summer will be dry, but not as bad as last year.

Anthony Lupo is chair of the Department of Soil, Environmental and Atmospheric Sciences.  His methodology is based on historical patterns and statistics, not on week-to-week forecasts.

Lupo’s prediction for the coming summer offers some good news.

It seems like we’re constantly hearing about how the worst drought in decades is threatening barge shipping on the Mississippi River. 

One day we’re facing a shutdown, the next day they say commerce will keep rolling on the river.  

Here’s the latest: The Army Corp of Engineers says it’s done enough work to keep the waterway open until the end of this month.   

After that, though, no one is making any promises, and that uncertainty is giving the shipping industry a lingering headache and could end up with local companies cutting jobs.