Prophecy, Drought, Earthquakes, Famine, Pestilence, War, and Strange Weather.

[Soldier4Christ]

Mumps cases increase to 104 in 22 Kansas counties

State health officials stay busy keeping tabs on mumps

Lindsey White woke up one morning and her glands were swollen.

“Initially I was just completely puzzled and confused,” White said. “I had no idea what it was. My glands were swollen and it hurt. I didn't even know what the mumps was.”

After she figured out she had mumps, White began to realize how uncomfortable it really was.

“It just hurts really bad,” she said. “I can't even describe the pain. The hot packs and the ice packs helped a lot.”

White spent 10 days eating nothing but mashed potatoes and oatmeal.

“Since it's in your saliva glands, any time I salivated, anytime I ate anything it hurt, so I had to stick to bland food,” she said.

White is a part of a mumps outbreak that's plagued the Midwest.

She's also one of 51 KU students who have been diagnosed with the disease.

“I was going to go to school and take a test, but they called and told me I wasn't allowed to go anywhere,” White continued.

School officials are urging students who live in the dorms and get sick to stay away for four days. They're also reminding all students to practice basic hygiene.

Most of the Kansas cases are in Douglas County, 72 to be exact.

Kansas joins six other states affected by the outbreak.

“I think the worst part about it is that its spread so much because you don't know when you have it,” she said. “It can take up to a week for all your symptoms to ever appear.”

Now that White's better, she's left wondering how she got it.

“I went to places like Dillon's, I went to gas stations. I could've picked it up at any one of those places. It's made me more cautious to wash my hands before I eat now,” she said.

Mumps is caused by a virus and spread by coughing and sneezing.

The most common symptoms are fever, headache and swollen salivary glands under the jaw.

[Soldier4Christ]

Mumps Spreading Across Oklahoma

With the largest US outbreak of mumps in two decades surrounding Oklahoma, health workers in northeastern Oklahoma are on alert.

The Tulsa City-County Health Department says so far, Oklahoma doesn’t have any confirmed cases of the rare childhood illness, but eight counties have at least one suspected patient.

“It's a concern for us it gives us a heads up to remind people to keep their children's immunizations on schedule as well as taking care of themselves and making sure that they have that second MMR shot." Janice Sheehan says Oklahoma hasn't had to worry about mumps because the state requires 2 doses of the vaccine before kindergarten.

Mumps is highly contagious and it causes some flu-like symptoms with one painful difference. "You definitely, if you see somebody with mumps their whole neckline is swollen."

Sheehan says those with shots up to date probably don't have anything to worry about, but there's always a risk. "We have very good vaccine coverage for the illness to prevent the illness in the vaccines that we do have, but nothing is one hundred percent."

Those infected with the virus are contagious days before any symptoms appear.

Concerns began after an Iowa epidemic spread to six surrounding states.

[Soldier4Christ]

Mumps Outbreak Includes Vaccinated Victims
Nebraska Reports More Mumps Cases


LINCOLN, Neb. -- Nebraska's mumps outbreak is growing, an expert said on Monday morning, and many of the cases have struck people who were immunized.

The state health department now reports 109 possible cases in 18 counties and 32 confirmed cases. Most of them are in southeastern Nebraska, and most of the patients are either between ages 10 and 18 or 35 and 45 years old. Epidemiologists said the outbreak doesn't show any signs of slowing down.

"We're constantly updating data. The local health departments are investigating," said Nebraska Health and Human Services' Dr. Ann O'Keefe.

State health workers have found that some of the cases involve people who had the recommended vaccinations.

"We've got information on the vaccination status for 48 of the confirmed and probable cases, and about 70 percent of those have had at least two (measles-mumps-rubella shots)," O'Keefe said.

The state is warning health-care providers to take extra precautions.

"If they're a health care worker, they need to be concerned," said HHS's Dr. Joann Schaefer.

In Omaha, the Nebraska Medical Center is responding by asking employees to come in for testing.

"We're asking our medical professionals -- if they've not had a diagnosed case of mumps, or if they have not had two MMRs -- that they report to our employee health area and get their blood checked to make sure they're immune to mumps," said NMC's Dr. Mark Rupp. "If not, we can inoculate them and get their immunity levels up."

There are 600 suspected mumps cases in Iowa. Kansas, Missouri, and Illinois are also experiencing widespread outbreaks.

The mumps epidemic is the nation's first in 20 years. Rupp said public awareness is key to stopping the spread.

Symptoms include fever, headache, muscle aches and swelling of the glands close to the jaw. It can cause serious complications, including meningitis, damage to the testicles and deafness.

[Soldier4Christ]

Indonesia's Mount Karangetang hit by a tectonic earthquake

A strong tectonic earthquake measuring 6.0 on the Richter scale has hit the Mount Karangetang area in the north of Indonesia.

The quake was centered 200 kilometers under the seabed of Siau island in the country's northernmost region but they've been no immediate reports of damage or casualties.

It comes as Indonesia prepares for the possible evacuation of nearly 30-thousand people living on the slopes of Java's simmering volcano Mount Merapi.

Vulcanologists have raised the alert to stage two, one level below ordering an evacuation from the country's second most active volcano.

All districts on the slopes of the two-thousand 900 metre volcano are preparing to coordinate relief and rescue efforts

Merapi's last eruption in 1994 produced heat clouds which killed more than 60 people and forced 6,000 others to evacuate.

[Soldier4Christ]

Indonesians set to flee as volcano rumbles

Thousands of Indonesia villagers are preparing to evacuate Java island as Mount Merapi rumbles awake with hot lava and thick clouds of smoke.

Authorities expect an eruption, based on the number of tremors, and have put the area on the second highest alert level, Radio New Zealand said.

Officials said the military had deployed more than 200 trucks and buses to evacuate villagers living on the slopes of Merapi, which is near Jogjakarta.

Merapi's last major eruption was in 1994 when more than 60 people were killed. One of its most destructive eruptions was in 1930 when 1,300 people died.

[Soldier4Christ]

Rare bubonic plague case reported in Los Angeles

 A case of bubonic plague has been reported in the second largest US city of Los Angeles for the first time in 22 years, health officials said.

An unidentified woman came down last week with symptoms of the disease, known as the Black Death when it devastatingly swept across Europe in the 14th century.

 Health officials said they believed the infected woman, who remains hospitalised, was exposed to fleas in the area around her house and stressed that the likelihood of a spread of the rare disease was very unlikely.

"Bubonic plague is not usually transmissible from person to person," said Jonathan Fielding, head of Los Angeles County public health.

Fielding explained that the disease is not uncommon among animals such as squirrels but seldom spreads to humans.

"Fortunately, human plague infection is rare in urban environments, and this single case should not be a cause for alarm in the area where this occurred," he said.

Health officials investigating the source of the disease set traps to catch squirrels and other wild animals in the area near where the woman lives.

Blood tests will be performed on any animals caught to determine if they were exposed to the plague bacteria.

Plague symptoms include fever, muscle aches, nausea, headache, sore throat, fatigue and swollen, tender lymph nodes associated with the arm or leg that has flea bites. The disease is treatable with antibiotics, medical experts said.

[Soldier4Christ]

Mumps cases jump to more than 800 in Iowa

Epidemic spreads to 8 other states as officials scramble to contain outbreak

DES MOINES, Iowa - The number of reported cases of mumps this year has climbed to 815 in Iowa, the state at the center of the nation’s biggest epidemic in almost two decades.

Iowa’s caseload jumped more than 200 in the past week, though some of the increase consisted of older cases that had been stuck in a backlog of paperwork, the Iowa Department of Public Health said Tuesday.

The epidemic has hit nine states. Nebraska has reported 110 mumps cases. Cases have also been reported in Kansas, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, Wisconsin and Minnesota.

It is the nation’s biggest mumps epidemic since 269 cases were reported in Kansas in 1988-89, according to the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Mumps is a virus that is spread by coughing and sneezing. It typically causes fever, headaches and swollen glands under the jaw. But it can lead to deafness, meningitis and damage to the testicles.

No deaths have been reported from the current epidemic.

[Shammu]

Residents in Australia's northeast prepare for second cyclone in a month
Apr 18 8:32 AM US/Eastern
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Residents in Australia's northeast were bracing for their second destructive cyclone in less than a month as Tropical Cyclone Monica bore down on the coast of Queensland state.

The Bureau of Meteorology said Tuesday that Monica was likely to intensify into a category three cyclone as it hit the coast Wednesday packing winds of 200 kilometres an hour (125 miles an hour).

"The very destructive core of Monica with wind gusts up to 200km/h is expected to be near the coast between Lockhart River and Cape Melville late on Wednesday morning," the bureau said in a statement.

The cyclone was expected to hit the coast near the Aboriginal community of Lockhart River on Cape York Peninsula but communities across the sparsely-populated far north of Queensland were advised to batten down.

Island residents in low-lying ares of the Torres Strait, to the north of the mainland, were warned to seek higher ground.

While no evacuations have yet been planned, authorities have told residents to be on standby in case they are ordered to leave their homes.

Monica's arrival comes just three weeks after Cyclone Larry, a superstorm at the maximum category five on the measurement scale, lashed the Queensland coast with winds of up to 290 km/h (180 mph).

Larry devastated the town of Innisfail and caused damage estimated at up to a billion dollars (750 million US) but emergency services were confident Cyclone Monica would not result in similar devastation.

Monica is expected to weaken to a category one storm as it crosses Cape York peninsula and continues to move westward into the Gulf of Carpentaria on Wednesday night.

Residents in Australia's northeast prepare for second cyclone in a month

[Shammu]

336,000 tons of dust falls on Beijing as more sandstorms forecast
Apr 18 4:18 AM US/Eastern
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Northern China was bracing for up to two more days of choking sandstorms after an estimated 336,000 tons of dust fell on the capital Beijing in a single day, state press reported.

"According to calculations (Monday) morning, the amount of dust that fell overnight amounted to 20 grams (0.7 ounces) of dust a square meter," the Beijing Morning Post quoted Zhang Mingying, a senior engineer at the Beijing Meteorological Station, as saying.

"This amounts to 336,000 tons falling on entire Beijing."

According to the station, air quality in the city remained at hazardous levels after sandstorms blown in from the deserts and grasslands of Mongolia and northwestern China blanketed the city late Sunday and early Monday.

A new weather front was moving in from the north and would stir up more sand on Tuesday and Wednesday. It would ensure that much of northern China, including the northeast area bordering Russia and the Korean peninsula, would be shrouded in dust, the Central Meteorological Bureau said in its forecast.

Beijing meteorologists were furiously trying to induce rain as the front moved in by shooting iodine tablets into cloud formations, the China Youth Daily reported.

Rains forecast for Monday night largely failed to materialize and did little to disperse the suspended dust particles that were hanging over most of northern China, reports said.

The current dust storm was the eighth to sweep across Beijing since New Year compared with a historical average of just six per year. It conforms with other data suggesting that the air quality is getting worse in Beijing, which will host the summer Olympics in 2008.

So far this year, the city has reported 56 "blue sky days," defined as days with excellent or fairly good air quality, 16 days fewer than the same period of 2005.

Northern China experiences sandstorms almost every spring but this year the situation has worsened because of high temperatures and a prolonged drought.

336,000 tons of dust falls on Beijing as more sandstorms forecast

[Shammu]

Thousands evacuated as Danube reaches 111-year high
By Simon Freeman and Adam LeBor

A state of emergency was declared across much of the Balkans today as the Danube, swollen by heavy rain and the spring snow melt, rose to a 111-year high.

Mass evacuations were being planned in riverside towns for 1,000 miles from the north-west tip of Serbia-Montenegro, through its neighbour Romania to coastal Bulgaria.

Authorities are optimistic that water levels will subside in the coming week but fears are growing over the health risks caused by sewage and mosquitos.

In Belgrade, the Serbian capital, low-lying streets are underwater and the city's ancient fortress has flooded. Hundreds of thousands of hectares of crops have been deliberately submerged in controlled floods to spare the downstream settlements.

In Romania, the Danube's banks have crumbled under the river's fierce torrent: water flowed at a record rate of 15,900 cubic metres per second, double the normal flow of 7,900 cubic metres per second. At least 1,000 people have been evacuated from their homes.

"We are going through an unprecedented situation. Romania has never had such water levels," said Madalin Mihailovici, director of the Agency for Romanian Waters.

Officials have commandeered tractors, bulldozers and other vehicles, but in many places damage from floods which claimed dozens of lives last summer has yet to be fully repaired.

The Romanian-Serbian border region, where the Danube forms the frontier between the two countries, has been badly hit. In the town of Bazias, the heavy rains and melting snow triggered a flood that covered 5,000 hectares (12,400 acres) on the Danube’s northern bank.

A number of victims of last year's floods in the west county of Timis have had their replacement homes destroyed.

In Serbia, officials declared a state of emergency in ten regions as all four of its rivers, the Danube, the Sava, the Tisa and the Tamis, rose to record levels. Thousands of troops were deployed to build up defences against the waters and stack sandbags along the riverbanks.

The Agriculture Ministry said that 223,000 hectares (550,000 acres) were under water. Parts of Belgrade, where the Danube meets the Sava, have been flooded for days, and telephones in riverside areas have stopped working.

In the eastern town of Smederevo, authorities drafted all men employed in the municipal services to flood-fighting crews on the Danube. Dozens of people were evacuated to a refugee centre and 5,000 acres of fertile farmland surrounding the town were flooded.

Zvonko Kostic, a waterways official in Smederevo, stressed that few Serbian towns and cities, except for Belgrade, have the necessary heavy machinery required to fight floods around the clock. "The volunteers are tired, it’s hard to keep up the tempo day after day," he said.

Villagers in Ritopek, nine miles southeast of Belgrade, were angered by the level of government help. "The state has practically forgotten us. All they did was bring a truckload of sand and dump it here," resident Andra Miletic told AP.

In Bulgaria, the ports in Lom, Oryahovo and Somovit were submerged with locals taking to boats. In Vidin, on the north-west tip of the country, 1,200 have been evacuated to a tented city after the Danube's waters reached a record 9.4 metres. All 50,000 of the town's inhabitants have been put on standby to leave.

To the east in Nikopol, largely under water on Saturday, the river had receded this morning but soldiers and divers continued to fortify dykes.

They said although the river should fall slightly on Monday and Tuesday, they were not out of danger as the flood now in Serbia was expected to reach the area and push waters higher again in the middle of the week.

"I expect the most significant rise of the water level on Wednesday. I’m afraid the high water could last up to a month," said Georgi Linkov, the head of regional civil defence for Nikopol."The biggest worry now is the inflow of mosquitos and the stink of sewage coming from the flooded houses."

Across the region residents have been left without power, transport or drinking water.

Despite the floods, Belgrade’s famed nightlife continued at the weekend. Srdan Jovanovic, the head of the city’s flood defence team, made an appeal to young women frequenting restaurants and clubs. He asked them to stop walking over the sandbags in their high-heeled shoes as they were puncturing the city’s flood defences.

THE DANUBE

It starts in the Black Forest in Germany and flows into the Danube Delta by the Black Sea

It is the second-longest river in Europe after the Volga, covering 2,850km (1,771 miles)

It touches ten countries: Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, and Ukraine

It flows through four capitals: Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest and Belgrade

In 2002 floods along the river killed 100 people and caused nearly c10 billion (£7 billion) in damage

A flood in 1965 destroyed 3,500 houses in Czechoslovakia and another in 1838 put most of Budapest under water

The Danube Delta is a World Heritage Site and home to the endangered pygmy cormorant

Rainwater from 815,800 sq km (315,000 square miles) of Europe drains into the Danube

Thousands evacuated as Danube reaches 111-year high

[Shammu]

Indonesian Volcano Spewing Smoke, Lava

By NINIEK KARMINI, Associated Press Writer Tue Apr 18, 6:25 AM ET

MOUNT MERAPI, Indonesia - The volcano that looms above his village is spewing smoke and lava, and scientists warn it could erupt anytime. But like many people farming the fertile slopes of Mount Merapi, Ismail says there is no need to panic.
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"Merapi is part of my life, as it is all of our lives around here," he said Tuesday, as the 9,700-foot mountain rumbled in the background. "We know nature, and we are not worrying."

Volcanologists watching Merapi, in the heart of densely populated Java island, disagree.

Aside from the visible signs of increased activity at its peak, sensors within the crater have detected a rise in seismic movement in recent weeks, and a major eruption is possible, they say.

Authorities have been ordered to prepare for the possible evacuation of the thousands of people who live close to Merapi, which last erupted in 1992, sending out a searing cloud of gas that burned 60 people to death. About 1,300 people were killed when it erupted in 1930.

Mount Merapi lies about 18 miles from Yogyakarta, a city of 1 million people,

More than 100 trucks are on standby to transport refugees, and emergency shelters have been prepared and stocked with food and medicine, Social Affairs Minister Bachtiar Chamsyah told reporters in Jakarta.

Many people living around Merapi and the other 129 active volcanos in Indonesia — more than any other nation — believe that spirits watch over the peak and will warn them when a major eruption is imminent.

Although most Indonesians are Muslim, many also follow animist beliefs and worship ancient spirits. Often at full moons, people trek to crater rims and throw in rice, jewelry and live animals to appease the volcanoes.

"If animals start coming down from the top then that is a sign for me to leave," said Ngadio, a rice farmer in a village on the dangerous western slopes of the volcano. "Hot clouds will always follow the animals' descent."

Indonesian Volcano Spewing Smoke, Lava

[Shammu]

Floods Force 10,000 Kenyans to Flee Homes

Tue Apr 18, 7:34 AM ET

MALINDI, Kenya - A river swollen by heavy rains overflowed its banks, forcing at least 10,000 people to flee their homes and destroying thatched mud huts and crops in impoverished villages, a senior official said Tuesday.

The victims have taken shelter with relatives and on the grounds of two public schools, together with their livestock after the Sabaki River began flooding last week, the Malindi District Commissioner Jan Ireri said.

It was not immediately clear whether there were any fatalities in the floods that destroyed at least 100 homes, he said.

The displaced face food shortages after their crops and food stocks were swept away, Ireri said, adding that there were fears of an outbreak of waterborne diseases in the area.

The Red Cross was preparing to send tents, food aid, mosquito nets and medicines, said the organization's coordinator in the Malindi area, Ruth Muriungi.

The floods caught residents by surprise because the region has been hit by a searing drought.

Heavy rains upcountry, however, have dumped large volumes of water into the river, causing floods as it crosses Malindi before emptying into the nearby Indian Ocean.

Floods Force 10,000 Kenyans to Flee Homes

[Soldier4Christ]

Summer forecast doesn’t hold water

Plains likely to see drought, service says

A dire weather forecast issued Monday calls for a hot, dry summer across the Plains reminiscent of the 1930s — the era of the devastating Dust Bowl drought.

The Pennsylvania-based forecasting service AccuWeather.com predicts a high-pressure system will be parked across the central United States much of the summer. The system would lead to scorching-hot days and prevent moisture from coming into the region — something that in turn causes even higher temperatures.

“It’s kind of a vicious cycle,” said Ken Reeves, the company’s director of forecasting operations. “Drought begets heat begets more drought.”

The forecast said it was possible that temperatures in some states would challenge the seemingly untouchable heat records set during the 1930s. But Mary Knapp, Kansas’ state climatologist, is skeptical.

“I would say it’s kind of jumping the gun to say it’s going to rival the ’30s,” she said.

Just how hot were the 1930s in Kansas?

The all-time record temperature for the state is 121 degrees, which was recorded on two separate days in July 1936 in Fredonia and Alton.

Lawrence’s record high temperature is 114 degrees, which occurred once in August 1934 and again in August 1936.

Overall, Knapp said, the AccuWeather.com temperature prediction for this summer in Kansas — with temperatures about 3 degrees higher than average — doesn’t amount to a dramatic increase.

Kansas’ average high temperature for the month of July the last 35 years has been 90.6 degrees, she said. But in July 1936, the average high temperature was 103.2 degrees.

“If you’re 3 degrees warmer than normal for your average high temperature, yeah, it’s going to be hot,” Knapp said. “But when you look at your record … there’s not anything showing that it’s going to be a repeat of ’36 or ’34.”

Still, this winter was the fourth driest in state history. In recent weeks, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius’ office has been issuing drought watches or warnings for counties throughout Kansas.

Bill Wood, Douglas County’s agriculture agent for K-State Research and Extension, said the lack of moisture in the soil was causing local farmers to brace themselves for the possibility of poor crop yields.

“Right now, it’s looking kind of scary,” he said.

The forecast comes as a research group headquartered at Kansas University is preparing to launch a $9.25 million project aimed at predicting large-scale environmental changes such as the Dust Bowl. The grant, announced Monday, will link researchers at KU, Kansas State University and Fort Hays State University in a study of environmental changes along the Kansas River basin.

“If we would have had this grant with the equipment and the computational power … before the Dust Bowl, we would have been able to predict that the Dust Bowl was coming,” said Leonard Krishtalka, director of the KU Natural History Museum and Biodiversity Research Center, the lead researcher on the project.

The three-year grant was awarded to the Kansas NSF Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research. It comprises $6.75 millionfrom the National Science Foundation and $2.5 million from the Kansas Technology Enterprise Corp.

At Baldwin Feed Co., 1600 High St., owner Steve Wilson has recently heard a few customers make reference to the Dust Bowl days. But overall, it’s not the greatest topic of concern.

“They’re probably still more concerned with high fertilizer prices,” he said.

[Soldier4Christ]

National Drought Summary -- April 11, 2006

The discussion in the Looking Ahead section is simply a description of what the official national guidance from the National Weather Service (NWS) National Centers for Environmental Prediction is depicting for current areas of dryness and drought. The NWS forecast products utilized include the HPC 5-day QPF and 5-day Mean Temperature progs, the 6-10 Day Outlooks of Temperature and Precipitation Probability, and the 8-14 Day Outlooks of Temperature and Precipitation Probability, valid as of late Wednesday afternoon of the USDM release week. The NWS forecast web page used for this section is: http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/forecasts/.

The East: Widespread moderate to locally heavy precipitation (1 to locally 3 inches) fell on central and northern New England, parts of the central and southern Appalachians, eastern sections of Tennessee and Kentucky, northern Alabama, portions of southwestern Georgia, and sections of north-central and east-central Florida. Moderate precipitation was less widespread across the lower Northeast, the northern half of the mid-Atlantic region, the coastal Carolinas, the southern half and northwesternmost reaches of Georgia, the rest of the Florida Peninsula, and the easternmost fringes of southern Florida. Light precipitation, generally one-half inch or less, fell on other dry areas along the Eastern Seaboard.

This pattern brought a mixed bag of changes to the dryness and drought conditions in the East. D0 was eliminated in Maine and New Hampshire, and in most of West Virginia, east-central Kentucky, northeastern Tennessee, and parts of the central Florida Peninsula. Dryness was relatively shallow and short-term in nature in these areas before this week, and improvements were based on significant streamflow increases and improved soil moisture. Topsoil moisture also increased through much of the mid-Atlantic, but with continued substantial short-term moisture deficits and a quick decline in streamflows following initial increases caused by runoff, D0 was kept in this region. Also, despite moderate rains in southeastern Tennessee, 90-day precipitation totals only rebounded to between 50 and 70 percent of normal by April 11, 2006, and with continued low reservoir levels, D0 conditions remained in this region as well.

In contrast, declining streamflows and increasing short-term precipitation deficits led to some D0 expansion into central New York, northwestern Pennsylvania, and east-central Ohio despite some precipitation reports of 0.5 to 0.9 inch in the latter two regions. Farther south, another drier-than-normal week in south-central Virginia and the interior Carolinas led to D1AH expansion into much of central and northern South Carolina, and some D2AH expansion in North Carolina and adjacent Virginia. Less than half of normal precipitation has fallen on most of the D1AH region during the last 90 days, and totals dating back to last April are about a foot below normal for most of the D2AH region.

The Central Gulf Coast: Hot and dry weather, with only scattered locations reporting a few tenths of an inch this past week, led to the northward and eastward expansion of D0AH and D1AH conditions, with moderate drought now extending into much of the Florida Panhandle, and to the introduction of D2AH conditions across southern sections of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and adjacent southeastern Texas. Areas from south-central Louisiana eastward through the D1AH area in the Florida Panhandle have received 9 to 12 inches less than normal rainfall since early January, and significant portions of the southern tier of Louisiana north and west of New Orleans are 16 to locally more than 20 inches below normal for the past year.

The Plains and Midwest: More than an inch of precipitation fell on a few parts of the region last week. Specifically, totals ranged from 2 to locally 4 inches in central Illinois, and fairly widespread totals of 1 to 2 inches were reported in southeastern Montana, western South Dakota, southeastern Iowa, and west-central Illinois. Light to moderate amounts (0.5 to locally 2.0 inches) dampened parts of southern South Dakota, northwestern Nebraska, southeastern Nebraska and adjacent Kansas, east-central Missouri, northwestern Arkansas and adjacent sections of Missouri and Oklahoma, and a portion of southeastern Kansas. Most other locations recorded a few tenths of an inch last week, but little or none fell on the southern half of the High Plains, most of Texas, part of northeastern Kansas and northwestern Missouri, northern Illinois, and much of southern and eastern Arkansas.

The resultant depiction of dryness and drought across this broad region did not change much from last week overall, though some adjustments were necessary. Abnormal dryness was taken out of central Illinois, and improvements to D0 were made in southeastern  Iowa and part of west-central Illinois. In addition, increased precipitation for the past several weeks also led to improvements to D0 in the Black Hills and adjacent western South Dakota. Farther south and east, 1-category improvements were also introduced in small parts of southeastern Nebraska, southern parts of last week’s D2H area in north-central Illinois, north-central Kansas, southeastern Kansas, and west-central Arkansas. Furthermore, D3AH conditions were removed from central sections of the Oklahoma and Texas Panhandles, despite the dry week, based on a re-assessment of both the extent and effects of a few episodes of precipitation during the last few months.

Meanwhile, D0AH conditions were introduced in part of southeastern Missouri and the eastern tier of Arkansas while moderate drought expanded into central and north-central Arkansas. Wildfires, low streamflows and reservoir levels, and poor winter wheat crop conditions remain the causes for greatest concern in the central and southern Plains. Farther north, especially through the High Plains, low streamflows and reservoir levels persist in some areas despite recent increases in topsoil moisture brought about by a few weeks of relatively damp weather.

The Rockies and Southwest: Another inch or two of precipitation fell on much of western Montana and Idaho, and on smaller areas in southwestern Colorado and east-central Arizona. Amounts were generally less than half an inch in other areas of dryness and drought in the Rockies and Southwest, with little or none reported in much of central and northern Wyoming, eastern Colorado, eastern Utah, southern Arizona, and most of New Mexico.

This precipitation pattern induced only a few changes in dryness and drought conditions, but some of those made are noteworthy. A recent evaluation by local authorities across the state of Montana led the Drought Monitor to remove D0H conditions from west-central Montana, but despite some recent precipitation, D0H was brought back in to portions of southeastern Montana because of unfavorably low streamflows and snowmelt-induced streamflow outlooks.

Farther west, D0H was removed entirely from Idaho because of abnormally robust mountain snow water contents and expected significant rises in reservoir levels (along with some possible flooding) as the snowpack melts. However, it should be noted that groundwater, aquifer levels, and some reservoir levels remain unfavorably low in the Big Lost and Little Lost River valleys, and in the Snake River valley from the American Falls Reservoir to Twin Falls. As a result, the Idaho Department of Water Resources still considers these regions to be experiencing drought for their purposes. In addition, Bear Lake in southeastern Idaho is expected to remain at below-normal levels for at least the next few months. During the protracted multi-year drought, streamflows feeding Bear Lake averaged only 5 to10 percent of normal due to loses from the stream channel to the groundwater.

cont'd next post

[Soldier4Christ]

Elsewhere, small areas of improvement were introduced in part of southwestern Colorado (to D0AH) and east-central Arizona (to D2AH) while the consensus of indicators led to the expansion of D2AH conditions through central New Mexico.

Alaska: Near- to above-normal mountain snowpack led to the elimination of D0 conditions across east-central parts of the state while low snowpack and a few weeks of consistently below-normal precipitation prompted D0 expansion into the northern Panhandle region. Farther south, 3 to 6 inches of rain last week eliminated D0 conditions in the southernmost reaches of the Panhandle. Elsewhere, no changes were evident from last week.

Looking Ahead: April 12 – 17 are expected to bring moderate to heavy precipitation in a swath from the Dakotas eastward through the Great Lakes, upper Midwest, Ohio Valley, mid-Atlantic region, and Northeast. Between 1 and 2 inches are expected from the east-central Dakotas eastward through much of the central Appalachians and western New York. Meanwhile, light to moderate precipitation is anticipated in the northern and central Rockies and in parts of central and northern Arizona, and little or none is expected in most of the Southwest, High Plains, central and southern Great Plains, middle and lower Mississippi Valley, Gulf Coast, southern Appalachians, and southern half of the Atlantic Coastal states. Above-normal temperatures are expected over most of the country, with daily highs averaging 9°F to 15°F above normal from the Southwest, central and southern High Plains, and most of the Great Plains eastward through the mid-Atlantic region.

The ensuing five days (April 18 – 22) should be warm and dry in most of the central United States from the eastern Rockies to the central Great Lakes region, Tennessee Valley, and central Gulf Coast. Below-normal precipitation is also anticipated across the Ohio Valley and Northeast, with the odds favoring above-normal amounts only in the far Northwest and across the southern half of the Florida Peninsula. Meanwhile, southeastern Alaska should be cold and dry, with below-normal temperatures also forecast for parts of the Northeast and the Florida Peninsula.