Verge of Drought? - Valley News Live - KVLY/KXJB - Fargo/Grand Forks

Verge of Drought?

  It's been another week of high winds and wild fires across our region.  Fires fueled by drought conditions in many areas.

  The National Weather says much our region's ag industry could be flirting with disaster. It says subsoil moisture that got many crops in our area through this past summer is just about gone.

Mark Ewens, National Weather Service: "We essentially used much of the soil moisture that built up during the wet cycle and so now we're facing a condition where if we don't see significant precipitation this fall or over the winter season, we have the potential to be in trouble next spring."

   Ewens says we're still actually in a long term wet cycle. He says the potential for drought is relatively short term and could end or worsen in a climate that now has major swings.

Mark Ewens: "Because the changes that are occurring in the Arctic for one thing, and also just the general change in climate. We're seeing tremendous variability across the region. That's kind of the watch word we're using for our climate across the northern plains… is tremendous swings back and forth."

  Right now, there's a bit of good news heading into winter. The Weather Service's long term forecast calls for nearly average precipitation through this fall.