It's Raining Fish and Spiders (28 page)

A lake during a prolonged drought
Realine Media; used by permission.

Droughts are not a thing of the past. There are droughts going on all over the Earth almost all the time. In 2002, Colorado reported its driest year since record keeping began in 1895. Wildfires, out of control due to parch conditions, burned over a million acres in Arizona and Colorado.

Drought is measured on a scale called the
Palmer Index
.

The positive numbers mean that above-normal soil conditions exist, with +4 being extremely moist. The negative numbers mean that the soil is extremely dry, with -4 being the worst. Negative numbers can lead to devastating conditions.

U.S. Drought Monitor maps are issued weekly by the Climate Prediction Center of NOAA. These maps show areas around the country which are effected by drought. In 2003, states in the Great Plains and in the West experienced one of the worst droughts in 108 years.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/Department of Commerce

Watering restrictions during droughts can lead to “brown lawn.”
David Sobotta; used by permission.

Someone Please Give Me Some A/C!

Wherever I go, I love to eavesdrop on people who are talking about the weather. One of my favorite topics—besides hearing that meteorologists always get it wrong—is when people compare heat in the eastern United States to the heat in the western United States. They say, “Yeah, but out west, it's a dry heat; in the east, we have the humidity!” The argument that “it's the humidity, not the heat” is pretty much a nonstarter. From June through August, the U.S. Southwest broils in 110ºF heat and that's uncomfortably hot no matter what the humidity!

Compare the two charts
. One shows average annual temperature; the other, average temperatures just in July. You'll see a heck of a difference!

That's Why It's Called Death Valley!

Death Valley is the hottest place in the world! No one will live there until someone comes up with an operation to replace your appendix with central air-conditioning. It is located in southern California, and has the most extreme heat of any area on Earth! Imagine a vast expanse of sand, littered with animal bones—with maybe some human ones thrown in—and, well, you get the picture.

Death Valley's maximum temperature of 134ºF (56.7°C), recorded on July 10, 1913, is the hottest temperature ever recorded in the Western Hemisphere. That temperature is surpassed by only one other city in the world: Al Aziziyah, Libya, which once recorded a temperature of 136.4ºF (57.8°C) on September 22, 1922.

What makes Death Valley unique is that it's consistently hot. The longest stretch of consecutive days with a maximum of 100°F (37.8°C) or higher was 154 days in 2001. This is only eclipsed by Marble Bar, West Australia, which had a run of 161 consecutive days with highs of 100°F (37.8°C) or more in 1923–1924.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/Department of Commerce

July 2006 was Death Valley's hottest month on record: the average temperature was 106ºF (41°C)! And on July 19, 2005, the temperature ranged from a low of 101ºF (38°C) to a high of 129ºF (54°C), meaning the daily average was 115ºF (46°C). That's likely to be the hottest average daily temperature ever recorded anywhere in the world.