Researchers: Flood-drought cycle can deteriorate drinking water.
March 31 (UPI) — Extreme changes in weather will lead to deterioration in the quality of drinking water, Kansas University researchers say in a report.
The findings, published in the journal Biogeochemistry, indicate that "whiplash weather," in which weather veers from drought to flood, for example, will lead to changes in farm production, with particular concern about how it will affect fertilizer use.
"Instead of going into the plants, which would be harvested, it stays in the soil — and no water is flushing it away."
The abnormal amount of nitrogen remains in the soil until a deluge, the researchers say, which will cause later problems down the road.
"The soil is like a sponge, and when it’s dry the nitrogen stays put, but as soon as you wet it, like when you wring a sponge, the nitrogen can flood into the rivers," added co-author Amy Burgin.
Remediating high nitrogen content in drinking water will involve the construction of new water treatment facilities, straining taxpayers, the report says.
Loecke cited an Iowa drought and flood cycle in 2012 and 2013, which resulted in a nitrogen increase in water and the construction of a $4.1 million nitrate removal plant costing $7,000 per day to operate.
"Increased weather whiplash will, in part, increase the frequency of riverine N [river-borne nitrogen] exceeding EPA drinking water standards.
Thus, our observations suggest increased climatic variation will amplify negative trends in water quality in a region already grappling with severe impairments," researchers wrote in the report.

‘Weather whiplash’ triggered by changing climate will degrade Midwest’s drinking water.
Now, researchers at the University of Kansas have published findings in the journal Biogeochemistry showing weather whiplash in the American Midwest’s agricultural regions will drive the deterioration of water quality, forcing municipalities to seek costly remedies to provide safe drinking water to residents.
"As rainfall patterns change with climate change, it’s predicted there will be more times of drought, and more times of excessive rainfall — really big storms," said Terry Loecke, assistant professor of environmental studies at the University of Kansas and lead author of the new investigation.
"Farmers put on their normal amount of fertilizer, but when we have a drought, plants don’t grow as big and don’t take up as much nitrogen," Loecke said.
But when floods occur, nitrogen is washed into surface waters such as tributaries that feed into rivers.
"But as soon as you wet it, like when you wring a sponge, the nitrogen can flood into the rivers."
"The drinking water is a real problem, especially in Des Moines," Burgin said.
"The average person will pay more to have clean drinking water, like in the city of Des Moines," Loecke said.
"A city can’t predict how many days they’ll have to run a nitrate-removal facility.
According to analysis by the Des Moines Register, 30 percent of them will have this problem — and most don’t have the tax bases to support huge nitrate-removal facilities."

Climate-addled jet streams boost drought, flood: study.
"Our work shows that climate change isn’t just leading to more extreme weather through the usual mechanisms," said lead author Michael Mann, a professor at Penn State University in the United States.
"In addition to these effects, global warming is changing the behaviour of the jet stream in a way that favours more extreme and persistent weather anomalies," Mann told AFP.
Jet streams are ribbon-like currents of air that snake across the northern half of the globe about 8 to 11 kilometres (five-to-seven miles) above Earth’s surface.
Jet streams are the reason it takes an hour less to fly from Los Angeles to New York than the other way around.
Connecting the dots When jet streams slow or stall, these weather systems can become more extreme, leading to extended periods of heat or precipitation.
"Relatively small changes to the jet stream can have a large effect on weather and extreme weather," co-author Dim Coumou, a professor at the Institute for Environment Studies and VU University Amsterdam, told AFP.
And what causes these massive air flows to stall?
It is a smaller temperature difference between the Arctic and tropical air that corrals them on either side.
Earlier research linked jet streams with major drought and floods over the last two decades, but said nothing about whether human activity helped drive the process.

Wildfires fueled by gusting winds, hot, dry weather, and desiccated plant life have burned nearly 900,000 acres of Oklahoma so far this year, a record, as well as parts of Kansas and Texas. The blazes have destroyed dozens of buildings and killed seven people as well as hundreds of cattle. A chimney is all that stands in the footprint of a home destroyed by wildfires near Laverne, Okla., on March 12, 2017. Credit: REUTERS/Lucas Jackson Late winter and early spring are typically the peak wildfire season for the region, as dry, windy weather arrives before the spring green-up of crops and other plants. But this season has been particularly active because of drought conditions that have creeped up during the winter, driven by record warm temperatures and a lack of precipitation. Climate change is expected to impact many of the factors, such as precipitation, that can contribute to wildfires. But exactly how it might affect future wildfire risks in the central and southern Plains is an open question, and one that has seen relatively little attention to date. ‘A Lot of Bad Luck’ While this time of year is typically the main wildfire season for Oklahoma and surrounding areas, this season has seen a record-breaking amount of land scorched by 133 large wildfires ignited in the Panhandle and eastern Oklahoma, with conditions exacerbated by a perfect storm of ideal fire weather and a deepening drought. (Large wildfires are those covering 100 acres or more.) That drought has developed due to a combination of exceptionally warm fall and winter temperatures and a lack of precipitation. While total precipitation to date is actually close to average in the Panhandle, with a little more than 5 inches since Sept. 2 in the town of Buffalo, about 3 inches of that precipitation came during a single January ice storm, with almost nothing falling since. Temperatures, meanwhile, have been unusually warm. October through February was the warmest on record for Oklahoma; on Feb. 11, temperatures in Magnum, in the southwest of the state, hit 99°F (37°C), tying the highest winter temperature ever recorded in the state. The burn scar of the Starbuck fire around Ashland, Kan., which spread from Oklahoma to Kansas in early March. Credit: NASA/USGS Those continually warm temperatures increase evaporation during the winter season and exacerbate the drought. “That’s when we saw the large leap in drought conditions, when normally we wouldn’t see that,” state climatologist Gary McManus said. While warmer winter temperatures would normally lead to an early spring green-up, the lack of precipitation has stymied that development, leaving plenty of dead and dormant vegetation to fuel wildfires, McManus said. Winter wheat has also taken a hit…

California and National Drought Summary for March 21, 2017 Summary March 23, 2017 – A late-winter cold snap over the eastern half of the nation contrasted with warmer-than-normal conditions from the Plains to the Pacific Coast, save for lingering chilly weather in the Northwest. The eastern cold spell was accompanied by mixed precipitation across the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast, resulting in widespread drought reductions. Much of the south experienced drier-than-normal weather, which coupled with recent dryness led to widespread expansion of drought. Drought conditions across the west remained unchanged, though renewed Pacific storminess was taking aim at the region at the end of the period. Northeast A late-winter storm brought widespread rain and snow to the region at the beginning of the period, further alleviating drought intensity and coverage. Precipitation tallied 1 to 3 inches (liquid equivalent) from northeastern Pennsylvania into southern and central Maine, resulting in widespread 1-category reductions of drought intensity and coverage. However, although conditions have been favorably wet over the past 90 days, lingering Moderate and Severe Drought areas (D1 and D2) have reported below-normal precipitation over the same time frame. Furthermore, these same locales are still exhibiting pronounced long-term deficits, with 12-month precipitation averaging 60 to 80 percent of normal. While streamflows have rebounded, slower-to-recover groundwater levels remained much lower than average. Despite the recent rain and snow — which alleviated the short-term (“S”) component of the drought — long-term drought (“L” on the map) remained in areas where significant long-term deficits persisted. Mid-Atlantic A late-winter storm brought moderate to heavy rain, sleet, and snow to the region at the beginning of the period, easing drought intensity and coverage. Precipitation was heaviest (2 to 4 inches) from southeastern Virginia onto the Delmarva Peninsula, where Abnormal Dryness (D0) was removed. The precipitation was somewhat lighter (1 to 3 inches) along and west of I-95, but some of the heaviest rain was well placed in northern Virginia, allowing for reduction of Moderate and Severe Drought (D1 and D2). In contrast, parts of western Virginia reported less than an inch, with 30-day precipitation deficits now topping 2 inches; in these areas, Moderate Drought was expanded to reflect the D1-equivalent Standardized Precipitation Index out to 3 months. Southeast Locally heavy rain facilitated drought reduction across the interior, while persistent dryness led to drought expansion and intensification over southern portions of the region. Rain totaled 1 to 3 inches (locally more) from western and northern Tennessee into western North Carolina as well as northern Alabama; modest reductions in Abnormal Dryness (D0) as well as Moderate to Severe Drought (D1 and D2) were made where the heaviest rain fell. Additionally, assessment from the field led to a reduction of the Extreme Drought (D3) in north-central Alabama. Conversely, rain bypassed most areas along the Gulf and southern Atlantic Coasts, with 30-day deficits of 2 to 4 inches encompassing a large area from central and northern Florida and South Carolina westward into southern Alabama. D1 was added to southeastern South Carolina and northern Florida where 90-day rainfall stood at a meager 25 to 50 percent of normal. Likewise, D2 was expanded over south-central Florida, coincident with 90-day rainfall less than one-third of normal. While a wet signal lingers out to…

Recovering pastures after a drought.
A lack of moisture in the fall, along with cooler weather, may negatively impact plant growth and delay root development.
Follow soil test recommendations to apply lime and other recommended nutrients.
Before any fertilizer is applied to bermudagrass or bahiagrass this spring, be sure the pasture has 80 to 90 percent green up.
If root growth needs to be stimulated, focus on adding phosphorus.
To allow plant recovery and root development, limit postgrazing height to 3 inches.
Also, pastures are less able to compete with vigorous weeds, especially annual weeds.
If a pasture has at least one viable plant per square foot, then the pasture will likely recover with appropriate applied nutrients and grazing management.
Pastures with less than 30 percent stand loss should recover quickly with strategic fertility, weed control, and grazing management.
Stands with over 60 percent loss may require renovation or long rest periods, which may be nine months to a year under favorable weather conditions, for full recovery.

You need to have the Adobe Flash Player to view this content. Please click here to continue. CENTENNIAL, Colo. – After a few months of unusually dry and warm weather, Denver hit 80 degrees on its final day of winter. Last week, the U.S. Drought Monitor showed the eastern half of Colorado in a “moderate drought”. There was one spot in a “severe drought” over Lincoln County and an “extreme drought” in far southeastern Colorado. Now, just one week later, the drought monitor shows large areas over metro Denver and northern Colorado have also deteriorated into “serious drought” conditions. Drought, mixed with hot, windy weather and a low relative humidity is creating dangerous fire conditions across the front range. “The fire season doesn’t care what month it…

North Georgia Is Still Dealing With Drought Conditions.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the risk of river flooding in this region is expected to be low this spring.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Drought Monitor explained those dry soil conditions are due to most of North Georgia still being in a drought.
Pam Knox, an agricultural climatologist with the University of Georgia’s crop and soil science department, said drought conditions usually diminish in the winter.
“That’s because of [a] combination of lack of evaporation and dormant plants,” Knox said.
“This year, it has not reduced as much as we’d really hoped.
And that’s because it’s been so warm."
Knox said the warmer winter caused more water evaporation.
She said that could be a warning sign.
“We’re ending the winter recharge period now, and it looks like we’re probably going to go back into warmer temperatures again, after this cold spell ends,” she said.

What led to California’s drought-busting rain this winter?.
“It has been a very interesting winter across most of the United States with very stormy and chilly weather in the West,” AccuWeather Long-Range Forecaster Jack Boston said.
La Niña occurs when ocean water temperature are below normal across the central and eastern Pacific Ocean near the equator.
However, there are many other phenomena that occur that can influence the global weather pattern besides La Niña or El Niño.
“The factor that has caused all of the storminess in California this season seems to be an unusual sea surface temperature distribution in the Pacific Ocean,” Boston said.
While El Niño usually favors stormy weather for California, warm water off the coast sent the systems on a more northerly track, missing out on the drought-stricken state.
Water temperatures in this region fell drastically since last winter, allowing storms to track farther south and drop heavy rain and mountain snow over California.
The heavy rain and mountain snow was a double-edged sword for the state, helping to alleviate the severe drought but also triggering flooding, mudslides and avalanches.
Officials also opened the spillway to the Don Pedro water reservoir for the first time in 20 years to prevent water from flowing over the dam’s uncontrolled spillway.
“The rain and snow this winter, especially during January, was a huge help in the short and long-term drought,” AccuWeather Western Weather Expert Ken Clark said.

Drought levels on the increase in Colorado, report shows, especially on the Eastern Plains.
The entire eastern half of Colorado is either abnormally dry or under drought conditions, the U.S. Drought Monitor said in a report Thursday, as warm, arid weather continues to take its toll.
The report classifies about 52 percent of the state as abnormally dry with another 37 percent of Colorado under moderate drought.
The dry weather has been blamed for contributing to wildfires across the eastern half of Colorado, including a 32,000-acre blaze in Logan and Phillips counties that burned several homes and killed about 200 cattle.
As of Tuesday, the snowpack was 135 percent of normal.
“They’re still hanging around about 100 percent of normal.
“On the plains, we’ve been extremely dry,” he said.
All of the fuels out there, they are still brown and dead and haven’t started their spring green up.
With the warm temperatures and the dry conditions, it may be slow to green up this year.” February, for instance, recorded several days of record-breaking heat in Denver.
“It doesn’t look like there is going to be much relief,” Mozley said.