Top: Flood gates opened to quell the rise of the Mississippi River. Bottom: the drought that hit the River Greta in Co. Durham in 2010
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FLOOD AND DROUGHT AND THE EFFECTS:
Despite US citizens in along the Mississippi having to flee the rising floodwaters due to small towns and farmlands being sacrificed to save larger cities, in the UK we are currently being plagued by a drought that is affecting farmers in Suffolk, Oxfordshire and Herefordshire. Not only that, but the drought means that fauna species are being affected – nesting statistics among house martins are down, a fact that can be directly correlated to the drought in the country due to the way they build their nests using mud from wet areas of ground. If there is no rain, then there is no mud for the birds to utilise.
Why, though, is the weather differing so drastically throughout the world? Why, when people are fleeing their own government’s decision to sacrifice them, are others suffering through the warmest spring season in years, if not decades?
The River Wye has hit levels that are reportedly lower than they were in the drought periods during the years of 1976 and 1984, according to the Wye and Usk Foundation, causing the deaths of species like the salmon which inhabit the river due to getting caught in too-shallow water as the river recedes. In states bordering the Mississippi, meanwhile, rising floodwaters and the state senates have forced people out of their homes in order to save more densely populated regions like Baton Rouge and New Orleans in Louisiana. The still-rising levels of water in Tennessee have surpassed the levels reached in 1937, meaning that some areas are practically emptied already as water spills over the banks of the river and across the Atchafalaya River basin. To save the larger towns and cities from the rising waters, the Morganza Spillway floodgates were opened. Up to 3,000 square miles (7,770 square kilometres) will be flooded due to this action – an action that has already meant the displacement of thousands (currently estimated to surpass 25,000) in order to save hundreds of thousands.
Just west of the state of Arkansas, however, is Oklahoma, where they are currently being hit by a drought (they had gone 222 days without rain by the 5th May this year) that has lasted nearly five years with conditions said to be worse than those faced during the ‘Dustbowl Days’ of the Great Depression in the 1930s.
GOOD FOR THE STRAWBERRIES…NOT SO GOOD FOR THE POTATO:
In England, conditions appear to be heading the same way. While the situation seems to be manageable at the moment, with falling river levels and crops affected by the duel-effect of too much heat and too little rain, it appears that the current status quo cannot be held for long, especially as the weather forecast for the next few weeks and months only predicts more of the same. In Oxfordshire, the BBC reports, vineyards and soft fruit orchards are heading into the harvest season unusually early which, while appearing to be a good occurrence for our industry, could paradoxically mean a lack of potato and wheat crops due to a possible oncoming drought.
Following an unusually hot and dry April, the south of England is now suffering from near-drought conditions that bring to mind the hose-pipe bans of years not too long gone by. According to the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, the headquarters of which are based in Wallingford, said March and April had the lowest recorded rainfall since 1938. If there is a shortage in potato and grain products due to early harvesting periods and drought, there will – of course – be a knock-on effect for the consumer as prices will have to rise in order for suppliers and farmers to recoup their losses. Rivers in England, for example, have been steadily decreasing over the last five years and more due to declining levels of rain and warmer weather than previous decades have known in a steady phase.
Butterfly enthusiasts, meanwhile, are delighted with the current warm weather – rain and a decline in temperature results in falling numbers of caterpillars surviving the changes that occur when they are in the pupal (or, chrysalis) stage. Perversely, the on-going unseasonably warm weather means that the butterfly populations could be just as affected if the rains keep failing to fall – too much heat and the butterfly could be crippled when it emerges from the chrysalis shell or even dying mid-pupal stage.
ONGOING NATURAL DISASTERS ACROSS THE GLOBE:
Of course, in Australia in November and December last year (like the USA at the moment) the country was hit by both floods and drought, devastating the country’s farming industries and having a severe effect on the economy due to livestock being drowned and crop fields inundated with floodwater. The coal industry in Australia was also affected – companies announced at the time that deliveries of coal would be reduced or delayed due to difficulties in mining and transporting the product. All of these problems await the industries in the states affected by the rising waters of the Mississippi River in the USA.
At the moment the situation hitting the world is less than ideal…and something of a Catch 22 – regions in countries around the world are either facing drought or floods, with little middle ground available.
