Heat Wave in Poland Causing Electricity Shortage, Drought

A heat wave in Poland on Monday forced the national supplier to cut electricity to factories for several hours, and Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz appealed to people to save energy during the day.

Temperatures reached 38 Celsius (100 Fahrenheit) over the weekend and there has been almost no rainfall, leading to a drought in agriculture. The levels of the Vistula and several other rivers have fallen dramatically, disrupting navigation in Warsaw and elsewhere.

“The situation resulting from the heat wave is serious and we have bad forecasts for the next 10 or 11 days,” Kopacz said, following a meeting she convened with the government crisis management team.

She appealed to people not to use energy between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m., if possible, but promised there will be no power cuts to individual clients or to hospitals.

Some dams are to increase the water flow to help cool overheating power plants, Kopacz said.

The highest temperature measured in recent days was 38 Celsius in the western Polish city of Wroclaw and elsewhere in the area.

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Risk of American ‘Megadroughts’ For Decades, NASA Warns

There is no precedent in contemporary weather records for the kinds of droughts the country’s West will face, if greenhouse gas emissions stay on course, a NASA study said.

No precedent even in the past 1,000 years.

The feared droughts would cover most of the western half of the United States — the Central Plains and the Southwest.

Those regions have suffered severe drought in recent years. But it doesn’t compare in the slightest to the ‘megadroughts’ likely to hit them before the century is over due to global warming.

These will be epochal, worthy of a chapter in Earth’s natural history.

Even if emissions drop moderately, droughts in those regions will get much worse than they are now, NASA said.

The space agency’s study conjures visions of the sun scorching cracked earth that is baked dry of moisture for feet below the surface, across vast landscapes, for decades. Great lake reservoirs could dwindle to ponds, leaving cities to ration water to residents who haven’t fled east.

“Our projections for what we are seeing is that, with climate change, many of these types of droughts will likely last for 20, 30, even 40 years,” said NASA climate scientist Ben Cook.

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Thailand is Suffering From The Worst Drought in Decades

Thailand is experiencing the worst drought in decaes, with seven out of 67 provinces affected and water rationing taking place in almost a third of the country.

Thailand’s Irrigation Department said that the amount of usable water in dams across the country, except in the West, have dwindled to below 10 percent and in the capital Bangkok tap water production has been slowing down since May, reports the Associated Press.

Meanwhile the drought is taking its toll on the country’s farmers.

Rice farmers usually plant their paddy in June or July but because of critical water shortages, the Agriculture Ministry has asked farmers to delay planting their crop until August.

According to the Office of Agricultural Economics, the delay could cost farmers in Thailand’s central plains 60 billion baht ($1.8 billion) in losses and straddle them with significant debt.

“My entire investment for this crop could be gone with the wind,” 66-year-old rice farmer Boontham Cei-pa told Bloomberg. “I’m stressed out and don’t know what to do.”

Thailand is one of the world’s top producers of rice, exporting more than 10 million tons annually. As a result of the drought, the Thai government has lowered its forecast rice exports for this year by 2 million tons.

Fearing the drought could mean a rise in rice prices, African countries have increased their imports, the Nation reports.

“The African market remains an important market for Thailand especially rice and parboiled rice,” Chukiat Opaswong, honorary president of the Thai Rice Exporters Association.

In an effort to support farmers affected by drought, Thailand’s Finance Ministry Monday approved loans of up to 60 billion baht ($1.77 billion) for emergency funds and long-term assistance to increase farm productivity.

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Drought May Trim 2015 Growth by Half Point

Drought may shave half a percentage point off Thailand’s projected GDP growth rate to less than 3% this year, according to a research house. The University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce’s unit said said its 2015 growth forecast might be cut by 0.52 percentage points from 3.2% earlier.

“If the government wants 3.5% growth, it needs to inject 70-100 billion baht into the system and finds remedies for farmers,” said Thanawat Polvichai, director of the university’s Economic and Business Forecasting Centre. A survey on 1,200 farmers and farm officials in 62 provinces found 90% thought the drought this year was more severe than in previous years.

“Small farmers with less than 20 rai, especially those who rent the land, will be the hardest hit,” he said. The impacts were higher production costs, lower output and incomes, as well as higher household debts. Farmers tried to cope with the difficulties by seeking state help, finding new jobs and moving to cities.

“What farmers needed the most from the government was a rice price guarantee, compensation and cost-reduction measures.”

The survey also showed the drought affected farmland in 25 provinces, causing damage to 35% of the land. If the situation improves in September, 10-12 million rai of farmland will be damaged, accounting for 12-15% of all 60 million rai. This will translate into 4 million tonnes of lost rice output worth 35 billion baht, he said.

The Economic Intelligence Center, the research arm of Siam Commercial Bank, also predicted its economic growth forecast might be 0.4% points lower because of the drought.

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California Cuts Water to More Farmers as Drought Escalates

California farmers who’ve held rights to siphon water from two key rivers in the state’s Central Valley for more than 100 years have been ordered to cut back as one of the most severe droughts in state history intensifies.

About 100 senior water rights holders with claims dating back to 1903 will have to stop pumping from the San Joaquin and Sacramento watersheds and surrounding delta to ensure those with even older rights have enough, the State Water Resources Control Board said Friday in a news release.

“The senior water rights affected by today’s notice add to the growing number of water rights restricted by the state’s ongoing drought as demand far outstrips supply in key California watersheds,” the agency said in the release.

“The drought has caused…thousands of farm jobs to disappear.”

Governor Jerry Brown

The action is the latest by state officials to conserve water as a record-setting drought grips the most populous U.S. state for a fourth year. California’s $43 billion agriculture industry consumes about 80 percent of the water used by people in the state and has experienced the worst effects of the arid conditions. Farmers have been forced to fallow thousands of acres of land, dig new wells and buy water from other farmers.

California’s water rights are based on a system of seniority that dates back to the Gold Rush era when settlers staked their claims along California’s rivers. Today, those claims still determine who gets priority access, a structure that creates winners and losers in a drought.

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Devastating Photos of California Show How Bad the Drought Really Is

California just entered its fourth year in drought. Experts say it’s the worst the state has seen in 1,200 years.

Dwindling reservoirs, shrinking lakes and dried up farm fields are everywhere — and as of yet the drought shows no sign of stopping.

The state’s snowpack, which typically provides about a third of the water for its farms and residents, remains at its lowest level in history.

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US Summer Forecast: Northeast to Endure More 90-Degree Days Than in 2014; Extreme Drought to Expand in West

This summer, warmth and dryness will build in the West, worsening the historical drought conditions that have plagued California for four straight years. Meanwhile, the Gulf Coast will have an abundance of moisture, raising concerns for flooding at times.

In the nation’s midsection, severe weather is forecast to continue into summer, with the overall tornado count increasing from last year. In the Northeast and mid-Atlantic, above-normal temperatures will mark a noticeable difference from the cooler-than-average summer of 2014.

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California Drought: LA Braces as Cotton Acreage Falls

Drought and water shortages could push California’s cotton acreage to its lowest levels since the early 1930s, and that could become a problem for yet another industry that the state currently dominates—high-end apparel manufacturing.

California accounts for most of the U.S. production of an economically important, high-end type of cotton called Pima. A reduction in the crop could spell trouble for the local apparel makers—many of them in Los Angeles—that are already bracing for the state’s first mandatory water reductions.

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Governor Inslee Declares More Areas in Drought

Worsening drought and snowpack conditions in Washington prompted Gov. Inslee to expand the state’s drought emergency today. Nearly half the state is now expected to experience hardships from this year’s drought.

With more snow lost than added over the past month, runoff from snowmelt this summer is projected to be the lowest on record in 64 years. Snowmelt feeds rivers and streams, and in turn provides critical water supply for farms and fish.

“We’ve never experienced a drought like this before – normal rainfall but with very little snow in the mountains,” said Department of Ecology Director Maia Bellon. “We’re engaging now with farmers, irrigation districts and partners in state, tribal and local governments to prepare for the hardships ahead.”

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Did Climate Change Cause California Drought?

Last week, California Gov. Jerry Brown ordered mandatory statewide restrictions on water use for the first time in the state’s history. His action was driven by a specific crisis unique to California at the moment — the severe drought now in its fourth year there — but it has significance for the whole nation.

As it has in the past, California is leading the way in recognizing that population and economic growth has to respect the physical limits imposed by planet Earth.

Adam Sobel

California developed the infrastructure and system of legal rights it uses to distribute water at a time when the population was much smaller than it is today — and when the climate was in an unusually wet phase, historically speaking.

This led to a system that all but encourages heavy water use in dry parts of the state, with little consistency in allocation or pricing and little disincentive to waste. This has never made a lot of sense, but the new measures are the strongest acknowledgment yet that it just isn’t tenable today in a serious drought.

As for the drought: It won’t be the last, and surely won’t be the worst to come in the remainder of this century. Brown’s measures may be temporary, but we can hope that they’ll be a step toward a more permanent reformation of the state’s water distribution system — one that includes large agricultural users, who are not included in the current measures, although they are the dominant consumers of California’s water.

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