ABERDEEN, S.D. All the sunshine we’ve been seeing is almost a cause for celebration that summer is finally here, but it’s not a good sign for everyone. Cattle producers across the Northeast region are praying for moisture soon to keep as much of their herd as they can. The hot weather is hurting more than helping for cattle producers and meteorologists in the area say it’s going to be long-term. Those at the National Weather Service office in Aberdeen know that the drought will end soon, but there are no real indications over the next couple of weeks to a month of it diminishing. This type of weather isn’t normal for May and June, which are usually the wettest months of the year. “For us to see a pretty good…

Scientists link California droughts, floods to distinctive atmospheric waves.
"This wave pattern is a global dynamic system that sometimes makes droughts or floods in California more likely to occur," said NCAR scientist Haiyan Teng, lead author of the California paper.
The California study was published in the Journal of Climate while the comprehensive study into the wave patterns is appearing in the Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences.
When they do, the result can be persistent weather patterns that often lead to droughts, floods, and heat waves.
The different windows into the atmosphere and precipitation patterns revealed that the formation of a ridge by the California coast is associated with the emergence of the distinctive wavenumber-5 pattern, which guides rain-producing low-pressure systems so that they travel well north of California.
Clues to seasonal weather patterns Forecasters who predict seasonal weather patterns have largely looked to shifting sea surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific, especially changes associated with El Niño and La Niña.
First, however, scientists need to better understand why and when the wave pattern emerges.
In the paper published in Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Branstator and Teng explored the physics of the wave pattern.
Using a simplified computer model of the climate system to identify the essential physical processes, the pair found that wavenumber-5 forms when strong jet streams act as wave guides, tightening the otherwise meandering Rossby wave into the signature configuration of five highs and five lows.
"The jets act to focus the energy," Branstator said.

Most of Florida is in a drought A spokeswoman for Gore said that he was citing the United States Drought Monitor, a weekly map published on Thursdays showing drought conditions.
While that was the highest this year, there have been multiple other weeks that it reached similarly high levels since 2000.
During two weeks in April 2012, 99.96 percent of Florida was in a drought.
This event will be similar.
"Since the Florida wet season has returned with a vengeance over the past week, and is forecast to continue over the next few weeks, the amount of Florida in drought two to four weeks from now should be substantially less than what it is today."
Experts told us that Florida is prone to periodic droughts, but rising temperatures as a result of climate change can make droughts worse.
This year the Florida Peninsula only received half of its normal rainfall during the dry season, leading to the most active wildfire season since 2011.
"There is an increasing temperature trend, and warmer temperatures lead to greater evapotranspiration rates, which can exacerbate these periods of drought," Zierden said.
While Gore’s numerical statement about the drought is correct, David Nolan, chair of the University of Miami’s Department of Atmospheric Sciences, cautioned against pointing to any particular weather event as proof of climate change.
Gore correctly cited the United States Drought Monitor which showed that 71.66 percent of Florida was experiencing a drought for the week ending May 30.

City officials announced Monday the City Council’s recent revisions to the drought contingency plan are in effect, and that means water use restrictions will only start if water supply levels decrease.
"It’s important to make sure the citizens are aware of exactly where we are," City Manager Margie Rose said.
"We do have a large supply of water, but we still want to be able to conserve in the right ways."
As of Monday, the lake accounted for about a quarter of the city’s current water supply.
Under the new plan, stage one restrictions, which are voluntary, would not start unless the combined capacity of the Choke Canyon Reservoir and Lake Corpus Christi dropped below 50 percent — or if Lake Texana dropped below 40 percent — for 15 consecutive days.
The last time that happened was late 2014 or early 2015, said Esteban Ramos, the city’s water resource manager.
"Citizens should not be afraid of a drought, but we should be informed and prepared for it," Ramos said.
"This plan does that."
"This gives us the opportunity to use that water," McComb said.
Still, city leaders are encouraging residents to water before 10 a.m. or after 6 p.m. to avoid the water evaporating before it can reach the root system of lawns.

Quick read: Drought hits Midwest while cattle producers find ways to adapt.
As of Thursday, most of northeastern South Dakota is considered to be in a moderate drought, according to the drought monitor index.
"So it’s a pretty impressive Top 10 stat there.
That kind of puts into perspective how dry this month has been.
North Dakota is getting pretty bad too," he said.
"Meanwhile, across eastern South Dakota, they’re much above average and into Minnesota.
So it’s a very tight radiant there."
Lueck said that, historically, the area has about 7.25 inches of precipitation by now.
So we are 4 inches below average," he said.
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‘Traveling’ droughts bring new possibilities for prediction.
A small subset of the most intense droughts move across continents in predictable patterns, according a new study published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters by researchers in Austria and the United States.
The study could help improve projections of future drought, allowing for more effective planning.
These traveling droughts also tend to be the largest and most severe ones, with the highest potential for damage to the agriculture, energy, water, and humanitarian aid sectors.
"Most people think of a drought as a local or regional problem, but some intense droughts actually migrate, like a slow-motion hurricane on a timescale of months to years instead of days to weeks," says Julio Herrera-Estrada, a graduate student in civil and environmental engineering at Princeton, who led the study.
The researchers analyzed drought data from 1979 to 2009, identifying 1,420 droughts worldwide.
They found hotspots on each continent where a number of droughts had followed similar tracks.
What causes some droughts to travel remains unclear, but the data suggest that feedback between precipitation and evaporation in the atmosphere and land may play a role.
"This study also suggests that there might be specific tipping points in how large and how intense a drought is, beyond which it will carry on growing and intensifying," said Justin Sheffield, a professor of hydrology and remote sensing at the University of Southampton.
Sheffield was Herrera-Estrada’s advisor while serving as research scholar at Princeton.

Across the region fields are green and hay, straw, corn, wheat, rye and other crops have rebounded considerably from 2016’s historic drought.
Even in April, parts of Northeast Georgia were still the driest areas in the U.S. "It was the driest year that I can remember in my 80 years," beef farmer Benny Cross said last week, standing ankle-deep in hay cut to replenish supplies he used up in 2016.
The Cross family usually keeps an extra barn full of hay for emergencies, but they used it up last year rather than buy hay like most other beef farmers did.
"We’ve been trying to get up some hay but it’s been raining the afternoons for the last week, week-and-a-half," said Cross.
Above normal precipitation — 1 to 5 inches — fell in Alabama, "resulting in drought improvement in all areas of the state," the report stated.
About a third of the hay was harvested before the rain."
"This time last year we were already dry," Tommy Cross said.
The Crosses got only two cuttings of hay in 2016 and three-quarters of the harvest came with the first cut.
However, Scoggins’ soybean crop — a crop planted after the rye grass is harvested for straw — only produced about a 20 percent yield last year from three plantings, he said.
The drought was a lesson for farmers.

As the ridge shifts eastward, a west-southwest flow develops in the mid-levels of the atmosphere, which will help to increase moisture across Florida.
Ahead of this disturbance, a deepening southwesterly flow will bring an increase in moisture across the state.
Find out with The Weather Network’s 2017 Summer Forecast | FORECAST & MAPS HERE At this point, it doesn’t appear likely that we’ll see a prolonged severe outbreak with these storms, but SPC does highlight north Florida as a potential spot for severe storms on Tuesday.
Even in storms that don’t meet severe criteria, frequent lightning strikes, brief heavy downpours, and gusty winds will be the main concern with those that do develop.
Watch below: Rainfall timing Play Video Play Mute Current Time 0:00 / Duration Time 0:00 Loaded: 0% 0:00 Progress: 0% 0:00 Progress: 0% Stream TypeLIVE Remaining Time -0:00 Playback Rate 1 Chapters Chapters descriptions off, selected Descriptions subtitles off, selected Subtitles captions settings, opens captions settings dialog captions off, selected Captions Audio Track Fullscreen This is a modal window.
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TextColorWhiteBlackRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyanTransparencyOpaqueSemi-TransparentBackgroundColorBlackWhiteRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyanTransparencyOpaqueSemi-TransparentTransparentWindowColorBlackWhiteRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyanTransparencyTransparentSemi-TransparentOpaque Font Size50%75%100%125%150%175%200%300%400% Text Edge StyleNoneRaisedDepressedUniformDropshadow Font FamilyProportional Sans-SerifMonospace Sans-SerifProportional SerifMonospace SerifCasualScriptSmall Caps DefaultsDone A welcomed 5+ inches of rain is expected to fall across parts of the state over of the next 7 days, but there are signals for locally higher amounts that could exceed 8 inches.
In addition to the rainfall expected, this active pattern will also help to keep a moist atmosphere in place across the Sunshine State.
This combination of increased relative humidity and rainfall should keep the fire danger at a minimum.

Nearly one-quarter of N.D. in moderate drought conditions.
FARGO — Nearly 25 percent of North Dakota is now in a moderate drought, according to the latest U.S. Drought Monitor.
"As the drought conditions are worsening in some parts, they are developing or showing early signs of drought in other parts of the state," said Akyuz, who also is a professor of climatological practice at North Dakota State University.
"That is not indicating favorable precipitation that might rescue us," Akyuz said, which could mean a deepening of drought conditions in some areas.
All of the state has had less-than-average precipitation in the last three months, with parts of central and south-central North Dakota getting 25 to 50 percent of normal precipitation — or less — during this period, the state climate office reports.
The result has been that this spring, so far, has been the 15th driest in Fargo, seventh driest in Bismarck, 10th driest in Minot and 17th driest in Jamestown.
"If average temperatures were not as cool as they have been, and if we did not follow a significantly wet six-month period," drought conditions could have been "much harsher," Akyuz said.
Helmut Schmidt Helmut Schmidt was born in Germany, but grew up in the Twin Cities area, graduating from Park High School of Cottage Grove.
He joined The Forum in October 1989, working as a copy editor until 2000.
He is currently The Forum’s K-12 education reporter.

Article from U.S. Conference of Mayors: ‘Western Cities Water Supply Challenges’.
Local governments in California invested $10.9 billion in 2000 and doubled that investment to $21.5 billion by 2013.
Safe drinking water and protection of water quality are costly activities for local government, and strong local balance sheets and resources are a pre-requisite for investment.
Here too, like investment in water and sewer, California local government finances tell a positive story.
Public water and sewer are financed with a combination of debt and ‘fee for services’ revenues from customers (households/rate payers).
Fees for water and sewer services are usually a component of own source revenue.
The latest local government Census data in California indicates that own source revenue increased 88% from 2000 to 2014, and local investment in public water and sewer has risen along with and above the national average at 102%.
Cities introduce resiliency by diversifying water supply sources.
Mayors and national experts participating in the Santa Barbara conference discussed a variety of city and regional projects they are investing heavily in, and the information is emerging on the cost of these various diversification options compared to traditional single-source treatment costs.
A variety of local solution sets and practices were discussed and outlined in the linked article.