Saint George, South Carolina — A rare October heatwave in the Southeast and Midwest pushed into the Northeast Wednesday and sent temperatures soaring. Records were broken in 164 cities Wednesday as nearly half the country had temperatures above 90.
Saint George, South Carolina, is now in the grips of a flash drought, brought on by extreme heat and no rain. To see the effects, CBS News flew a drone over a cornfield. Stanley Gruber said his insurance agent told him his corn crop is a total loss.
“I mean there’s no ears here,” he said.
Temperatures reached the mid-90s in Saint George. On average in the month of October, it would usually be in the mid-70s.
This is the first time in 50 years that Gruber won’t make any money on his corn crop.
“I’m starting to pay attention to some of this climate change they are talking about,” he said. “Now if you don’t have irrigation, you can’t grow anything,” he said.
The heat will break for much of the country on Friday, but in the South, it will not only stay hot, but dry.
The first half of 2018 saw remarkably wet conditions that put Kentucky on track to have a record year for rainfall. But now, the state is facing one of the worst droughts since records began in 1895.
All 120 counties in Kentucky have issued drought declarations as unprecedented hot and dry conditions pummel the state and much of the Southeast. Persistent drought conditions are already affecting this year’s farmers and cattle producers and could impact the state’s drinking water if they last much longer.
Last month will likely go down as the driest September on record with an average of 0.28 inches of rainfall across the state. At the same time, it’s likely to be among the hottest ever Septembers on record, State Climatologist Stuart Foster.
“In a very real sense what we are seeing now has never happened before in our recorded record,” Foster said. “Almost any way you look at it this is an unprecedented situation for us here in Kentucky.”
While every drought is unique, this year’s weather pattern is consistent with climate change models in national and regional climate assessments, Foster said. Climate scientists say the frequency of extreme weather including heavy downpours, droughts and heatwaves will become more common as average temperatures rise.
it’s too bad that stanley most likely voted for trump, our asshole president who also does not believe in climate change. people do not care about anything until it affects them.
Hello, Greenman, I am a committed climate activist, and usually read your “Crock of the Week” posts avidly. BUT for the last 2-3 weeks every time I click the “Read more” link I get a spam announcement about my computer being infected with 3 viruses, and I need to pay for some service to fix it. If I try to click the X to remove the scam/ad, that closes your whole post. I literally CANNOT read your posts at all now! Please try to fix this problem – I need your climate intelligence! Sincerely, Suzanne Kent
FWIW, I use Firefox with the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s “Privacy Badger” add-on. It has alerted me to 19 “potential trackers” on this site, which is very high in my experience.
Conversely, my “Adblocker Ultimate” add-on isn’t showing any(!) ads.
During that horrible 2011 drought in Texas which killed hundreds of millions of trees, I began to appreciate that the dry breeze that feels so good to us mammals when it’s hot is extremely desiccating to plants. I would hate to be a farmer just about anywhere nowadays.
Well there will increasingly be flora species that are no longer in their correct climate zone so they gotta go. I’ve not studied it all so you guys will know more of the details, but they are just details (plus important matter of time lines) and if they are out of their correct climate zone they just gotta go.
Here in the DC area, we have finally had a cold front come through that made a difference. Windows are open for the first time in probably five months and a cool breeze is blowing through the house.
September was a record dry month, 10/3 was an all time record high temp for the area, and many trees are showing signs of dying. My Trump-loving moron of a neighbor across the street is losing a very nice 40+year old Pin Oak because he failed to take my advice and water it during the summer dry spells.
How can anyone NOT see that climate change is causing extreme weather and unpredictability everywhere?
it’s too bad that stanley most likely voted for trump, our asshole president who also does not believe in climate change. people do not care about anything until it affects them.
Hello, Greenman, I am a committed climate activist, and usually read your “Crock of the Week” posts avidly. BUT for the last 2-3 weeks every time I click the “Read more” link I get a spam announcement about my computer being infected with 3 viruses, and I need to pay for some service to fix it. If I try to click the X to remove the scam/ad, that closes your whole post. I literally CANNOT read your posts at all now! Please try to fix this problem – I need your climate intelligence! Sincerely, Suzanne Kent
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FWIW, I use Firefox with the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s “Privacy Badger” add-on. It has alerted me to 19 “potential trackers” on this site, which is very high in my experience.
Conversely, my “Adblocker Ultimate” add-on isn’t showing any(!) ads.
Best of luck with that annoying problem.
During that horrible 2011 drought in Texas which killed hundreds of millions of trees, I began to appreciate that the dry breeze that feels so good to us mammals when it’s hot is extremely desiccating to plants. I would hate to be a farmer just about anywhere nowadays.
https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/data/png/20110830/20110830_tx_trd.png
Well there will increasingly be flora species that are no longer in their correct climate zone so they gotta go. I’ve not studied it all so you guys will know more of the details, but they are just details (plus important matter of time lines) and if they are out of their correct climate zone they just gotta go.
“I’m starting to pay attention to the “Bridge Out” sign I saw a ways back”.
Here in the DC area, we have finally had a cold front come through that made a difference. Windows are open for the first time in probably five months and a cool breeze is blowing through the house.
September was a record dry month, 10/3 was an all time record high temp for the area, and many trees are showing signs of dying. My Trump-loving moron of a neighbor across the street is losing a very nice 40+year old Pin Oak because he failed to take my advice and water it during the summer dry spells.
How can anyone NOT see that climate change is causing extreme weather and unpredictability everywhere?
Cambodia is having a heat wave you say ?
Is it God is punishing the South for its conservatism or for its racism? I can’t make it out.
Hard to see—if you scrape off the scum of gerrymandering and voter suppression it might be easier.