Dodge City - Driest May In 130 Years - Dust Storms Return To Kansas

[hatrack]

EDIT

"Dodge City had its driest May in nearly 130 years. Northwest Kansas has been so dry for so long "it looks like the great Mojave Desert," said Capt. Kelly McGuire, Kansas Highway Patrol troop commander for northwest Kansas.

Topsoil has been reduced to fine dust, Johnson said, and so little vegetation has grown in recent years that farmers are struggling to keep even crop residue on their fields to protect against blowing. "I think any time now that we have winds come up that are 30 or 40 miles per hour, it could happen," Johnson said. "It seems to be almost a daily occurrence around here." The Memorial Day weekend dust storm was unique in that winds were pulled into the center of a strong low-pressure system that had sunk unusually close to the ground, Hayes said. Winds rushing to balance out the pressure brought large amounts of dust, creating dense clouds.

There's no reason it couldn't happen again, he said. That makes McGuire and others nervous. "It's just horrendous," McGuire said. "It hit so fast. We were trying to get the gates shut and get people shoved off the road before something happened, and we couldn't." Blinded by the dust storm, motorists stopped right on the interstate. State troopers could do little to improve the situation, McGuire said, because they couldn't see either. The wind was so strong it blasted the paint from a trooper's license plate. Troopers caught in the storm had to have their weapons taken apart and cleaned, McGuire said, because dust had rendered the guns inoperable.

On videotapes shot by troopers, the approaching dust storm "looked like a tornado rolling sideways on the road," McGuire said. Towns and highways went from bright sunlight to midnight darkness in moments."

EDIT

http://www.kansas.com/mld/eagle/2004/06/06/business/8850370.htm

[LittleApple81]

1. For years western Kansas has been doing all the wrong things.

So it is not only the lack of rain but destroying the wind barriers (trees) grown after the dustbowl (taken down to make irrigation and crop harvesting with big machines eaiser), irrigation policies, etc.
Too bad, because a dustbowl is such a tragedy.

[hatrack]

2. Removing Shelterbelts - BAD Idea

On top of that, most of this land wouldn't even be in production if not for the Ogalala, which required center-pivot pumps, which required that the shelterbelts come down, which . . . you get the picture.

[havocmom]

3. Big corporate farming is a real threat as the methods are not good for

conservation, but designed for peak efficiency in the here and now. Combined with drought that is making rivers in MT run lower than ever it equals a disaster. There just isn't enough water and the methods to save soil are being ditched for a good financal statement this quarter. Tomorrow does not look bright.

[LittleApple81]

6. Don't stop thinking about TODAY... don't think about TOMORROW..

That is Bush*'s and the repug's song. Remember, who cares about history... we will be dead.

[Mr.Green93]

4. " tractored out by the cats."

[lanparty]

5. That's the price you pay ...

This is simply the price we will pay for the Northwest passage. Did you hear, the polar ice cap is MELTING!!!!!

No doubt, the conservatives see this as a good way to get Alaska wildlife refuge oil to the East Coast.

[NNadir]

7. Oh shit.