2018 Droughts

[Alexander555]

Strong decline in food production in Argentina.

https://watchers.news/2018/09/20/severe-drought-blamed-for-sharp-decline-in-economy-exports-of-soy-and-corn-argentina/

[Sleepy]

Drought in Europe Summer 2018: crisis management in an orderly chaos
https://www.farm-europe.eu/blog-en/drought-in-europe-summer-2018-crisis-management-in-an-orderly-chaos/

DWD says no precipitation in sight (in german).
https://www.dwd.de/DE/wetter/thema_des_tages/2018/10/5.html

[vox_mundi]

Water Woes as Drought Leaves Germany's Rhine Shallow

The Rhine currently has its lowest ever amount of water. In Emmerich, the water level has reached a record low of 22 centimeters (8 inches) - six centimeters below the lowest known water level on October 1st, 2003.

In Cologne, authorities expects the Rhine level to fall below the previous low water record of 0.81 meters from 2003 this week. For Thursday, Cologne's municipal sewerage companies expect a level of 0.80 metres.

Extremely low water levels in the river Rhine in Cologne have exposed a bomb from the Second World war, estimated to weigh between 50 to 125kg.

The low tide is already causing massive problems to freight traffic on the river, which is the second-longest river in Central and Western Europe - after the Danube - at about 1,230 km

Freight firms have raised concerns about losses because of the disruption the low water levels have caused.  There are also problems with passenger transport. The Cologne-Düsseldorf shipping company has discontinued its scheduled services on the Rhine.

The energy company RWE is still unable to supply the coal-fired power plant in Hamm with full coal freighters, RP Online said.

A company spokesman said that due to the low water level, the ships could only transport just over two thirds of cargo to the power plant. In the summer the plant had been taken off the grid for a few days because of problems with the coal supply.

According to German weather reports, the Cologne area is expected to remain dry but there is a chance of some rain showers on Thursday.

[Sebastian Jones]

Water Woes as Drought Leaves Germany's Rhine Shallow

The Rhine currently has its lowest ever amount of water. In Emmerich, the water level has reached a record low of 22 centimeters (8 inches) - six centimeters below the lowest known water level on October 1st, 2003.


The energy company RWE is still unable to supply the coal-fired power plant in Hamm with full coal freighters, RP Online said.

A company spokesman said that due to the low water level, the ships could only transport just over two thirds of cargo to the power plant. In the summer the plant had been taken off the grid for a few days because of problems with the coal supply.

File this under relentless optimism: Coal supplies disrupted, reinforcing the value of renewables.

[vox_mundi]

... File this under relentless optimism: Coal supplies disrupted, reinforcing the value of renewables.

We can only wish ...

Drought-hit Rhine Forces Germany to Tap Oil Reserves 

The German government on Friday said it had authorised the release of strategic fuel reserves after record-low water levels in the drought-hit Rhine river badly disrupted oil shipments in recent weeks

Among those worst hit by delivery problems because of the reduced river traffic has been Frankfurt's busy international airport, as well as the city of Cologne and the western states of Hesse, Baden-Wuerttemberg and Rhineland Palatinate.

By law, Germany may tap its oil product reserves "to relieve a local crisis situation".

According to Wirtschaftswoche magazine, it is only the fourth time in 40 years the government has taken this step.

... On Friday, Cologne measured a water level of just 73 centimetres (29 inches).

The ongoing dry spell has prompted industrial giant Thyssenkrupp to cut back production at its Duisburg plant because of a reduced supply of raw materials.

Chemicals giant BASF has likewise grappled with "limited deliveries" to its Ludwigshafen factory, while energy group RWE is struggling to supply its Hamm power plant with coal.

Other rivers in Germany have suffered too, with levels on the Elbe leading to Hamburg also dangerously low.

While the railroad is able to deliver a certain amount of oil to customers, it is not nearly enough to compensate for the decreased river traffic.

Elsewhere ...

Drought to cut east Australia crop output in half from 20-year average
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-australia-drought-outlook/drought-to-cut-east-australia-crop-output-in-half-from-20-year-average-idUSKCN1N00D7

MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Drought is expected to cut eastern Australia’s crop production this year to less than half the average over the past 20 years, with New South Wales to be worst hit, the country’s agricultural commodities forecaster said on Friday.

... About half the farm land in southeastern Australia is suffering 1-in-20 year drought conditions, compared with more than 80 percent that was hit during the worst of the 2002-03 drought, the bureau said.

[bligh8]

Exacerbation of the 2013–2016 Pan‐Caribbean Drought by Anthropogenic Warming


Abstract
The Caribbean islands are expected to see more frequent and severe droughts from reduced precipitation and increased evaporative demand due to anthropogenic climate change. Between 2013 and 2016, the Caribbean experienced a widespread drought due in part to El Niño in 2015–2016, but it is unknown whether its severity was exacerbated by anthropogenic warming. This work examines the role of recent warming on this drought, using a recently developed high‐resolution self‐calibrating Palmer Drought Severity Index data set. The resulting analysis suggest that anthropogenic warming accounted for ~15–17% of the drought's severity and ~7% of its spatial extent. These findings strongly suggest that climate model projected anthropogenic drying in the Caribbean is already underway, with major implications for the more than 43 million people currently living in this region.


Plain Language Summary

Climate models project significant drying for the Caribbean as a consequence of increased anthropogenic greenhouse‐gas concentrations. Between 2013 and 2016, virtually, the entire region experienced a Pan‐Caribbean drought, which was unprecedented since at least 1950. We find that human‐caused warming contributed to ~15–17% of drought severity by increasing evapotranspiration rates and accounted for ~7% of land area under drought across the Caribbean. Our results therefore suggest that anthropogenic warming has already increased drought risk in the Caribbean.

doi.org/10.1029/2018GL079408  .. open access

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2018GL079408

bligh

[Sigmetnow]

More on the Rhine River drought.  ”...on Oct. 23 recorded an all-time low water level of 26 inches [66 cm] in Cologne, the Rhine’s biggest city with a population of about 1 million.”

Drought has hit Europe's Rhine River and its commerce hard: 'Everyone's hoping for rain'

Many gas stations in the region have been running dry without fresh supplies from Rhine cargo ships and winter home heating fuel deliveries have been curtailed or postponed. Some airlines operating from farther south in Frankfurt have grown concerned about their supplies of jet fuel.

Most cruise ship operators in Cologne decided to shut down a few weeks earlier than usual this autumn rather than risk running aground or into a submerged obstacle in the treacherously shallow waters. Items including unexploded World War II-era aerial bombs and other ordnance as well as rusting car wrecks have been found in the increasingly exposed riverbed. Scores of abandoned bicycles, tons of metallic objects and trash and even a still-locked safe have been recovered as the waters retreated.

http://www.latimes.com/world/europe/la-fg-europe-germany-rhine-20181112-story.html

[Steven]

Another article (in German) about the drought in Germany:
https://projekte.sueddeutsche.de/artikel/panorama/duerre-in-deutschland-e407144/

Flow rate of the Rhine river at Cologne in 2018 (red) vs. normal (blue):



Rhine at Bingen, now vs. normal:



Similar conditions elsewhere in Germany, e.g. the Elbe river:

[Sigmetnow]

Communities are losing power or switching to diesel as water flow to hydroelectric plants runs low.

A Weird Severe Drought Is Affecting Alaska in One of the Wettest U.S. Locations

Severe drought has gripped one of the nation's wettest climates for months even though it has received more than 95 inches of precipitation this year.

Ketchikan, Alaska, has recorded 96.62 inches of precipitation (rain/melted snow) in 2018 through Dec. 10. In many parts of the United States that would be an extreme amount, but in Ketchikan that's 35.94 inches below average.

https://weather.com/news/climate/news/2018-12-11-weird-drought-alaska-ketchikan-wet-climate

[gerontocrat]

The Murray-Darling river basin is the most important natural water system in Australia. There has been a massive fish die-off recently - years of over-extraction has reduced river flows , so a recent drought and heatwave was enough to cause a die-off.

The first-dog-on-the-moon has again produced a cartoon strip that cuts to the chase.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jan/16/the-murray-darling-fish-kill-is-a-monumental-catastrophe-and-also-business-as-usual

[vox_mundi]

Australian State to Pump Oxygen Into Rivers as Fish Die 
https://m.phys.org/news/2019-01-australian-state-oxygen-rivers-fish.html

An Australian state government on Tuesday announced plans to mechanically pump oxygen into lakes and rivers after hundreds of thousands of fish have died in heatwave conditions

Minister for Regional Water Niall Blair said 16 battery-powered aerators had been bought and would be placed in various drought-affected waterways after they are delivered by Wednesday.

"They are a Band-Aid solution; we admit that," Blair told reporters.

"Nothing will stop this fish kill unless we get proper river flows and water levels in our dams back up to normal. We are doing everything we can to try and limit the damage," he added.

Rockhound: "Wow. This is a god dam Greek tragedy."

Armageddon - 1995 

[Rodius]

The rivers would fill up in the Darling River if they stopped using the water to irrigate the cotton farms and stopped allowing large mines to drain the river for mining purposes.

The river is not in trouble because of the drought, it is all Govt policy and allowing cotton farmers and miners to take far more water than the environment produces.

The problem of the drought is also linked to poor farming practices in QLD and NSW, where they are farming the land like the British did 100 years ago rather than look at the semi arid regions and do something that actually is workable.

BUT>..... because the Australia has plundered the land, destroyed the forests and drained the rivers, what was once a vibrant region is rapidly becoming a desert.
They are calling it a drought, but at some stage they will have to admit it isnt a drought, it is the new climate.
And to think it was avoidable.

With more heat in the region, it will only get worse.

http://soilsystems.com.au/desertification-australia-and-the-perfect-storm-its-time-to-implement-an-australian-sovereign-wealth-fund/