Drought Status

gtapp · Post by **gtapp** » Wed Jul 13, 2005 4:38 pm

I drove through Montana in early June and I have never seen it so green. Is the state still getting plenty of water or is the ground starting to dry out? Is there still a fire danger?

Ponycat · Post by **Ponycat** » Wed Jul 13, 2005 5:29 pm

It's actually staying pretty green. Its been getting hot but we've gotten some timely rains. Only problem now is hay is down and the rain keeps coming. Darn farmers are never happy anyway

grizzh8r · Post by **grizzh8r** » Wed Jul 13, 2005 11:50 pm

A point of clarification: One good spring/early summer of rain will not end the drought. It will take several very wet years, or a decade of normal years to bring us out of it.

Soil moisture is still very low. Go dig a hole most anywhere in MT (besides up around Harlo), and once you get past about 2 feet ( if you can dig it that deep

), it turns to powder. Yes, it is still green, but one or two more weeks of near-record heat like we have been getting, and it won't be green anymore. Because of all the early moisture (and now hot weather), the range grasses really "popped" and are growing good. But if we don't keep getting timely rains (like last summer), all of that tall grass will become prime fire fodder.

That is what the people in Wheatland county are worried about. From early May until the rains subsided sometime in late June, some places recorded over 11 inches of precipitation. On average, most of Montana recieves somewhere in between 10-14 inches of measurable precipitation, so that 11 inches is a LOT of moisture in a very short amount of time. Those rains could actually end up doing more harm (range fires) than good (increasing soil moisture)....

Also, we didn't have a very good snowpack left from this winter, and the majority of the snow was gone by mid to late June. Take a look at the Bridgers, for example. They are completely bare. Streams and rivers will be low again this year, as a result.