Posts tagged ‘natural disasters’

And the designated disaster counties in Illinois are…

by , posted on Wednesday, August 1st, 2012 at 7:28 pm

sadly too numerous to name. Today the number of Illinois counties designated as drought disaster areas rose to 98 of Illinois’ 102 counties. The four counties not named disaster areas (yet) were:
Cook, DuPage, Will, and my home county of Kane.

You can go look at the usda map for the whole country here. It is massive, with more than 50% of U.S. counties declared disaster areas by today.

As to why this cluster of four counties in Illinois are not included, I can only guess that, because we have been getting some rain over the last week, we are in somewhat less dire straits than the rest of the state. But we are still in drought, per the drought monitor map, which may tell a different story after it updates tomorrow morning. The still-brown grass here tells its own story.

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It’s No Katrina

by , posted on Thursday, July 5th, 2012 at 10:32 am

Nor is it an earthquake, or a series of lethal tornados, or any other sudden disaster. It is rather a natural disaster in slow motion, creeping and steady and relentless, and apparently not photogenic enough to merit your standard-issue disaster-type media coverage. drmon
They’ve got maps – along with a twelve week history rolling history of this drought unfolding – right here.

Along with juicy tidbits like “Looking Ahead: In general, July 4 – 8, 2012 doesn’t look promising in terms of relief, though the intense heat should subside somewhat.”

Here’s what intense heat subsiding somewhat looks like where I’m at:

Today Jul 5
101°F
77°F
Mostly Sunny
Chance of rain:20%Wind: W at 12 mph

Fri Jul 6
102°
74°
Mostly Sunny
Chance of rain:10%Wind: WSW at 7 mph

Sat Jul 7
95°
67°
Isolated T-Storms
Chance of rain:30%Wind: N at 15 mph

Sun Jul 8
83°
63°
Partly Cloudy
Chance of rain:20%Wind: NNE at 12 mph

Mon Jul 9
83°
60°
Sunny
Chance of rain:0%Wind: NE at 8 mph

Tue Jul 10
84°
63°
Sunny
Chance of rain:0%Wind: NE at 8 mph

Wed Jul 11
86°
68°
Sunny
Chance of rain:0%Wind: SE at 8 mph

Thu Jul 12
89°
66°
Sunny
Chance of rain:0%Wind: S at 8 mph

Fri Jul 13
89°
68°
Sunny
Chance of rain:0%Wind: SW at 9 mph

Sat Jul 14
90°
71°
Sunny
Chance of rain:0%Wind: SSW at 9 mph

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