U.S. Both Starved for Rain, and Swimming

The West and East were dry but the Great Pains received more rain than usual in the first eight months of 2007.

Photo: NASA`

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While the Great Plains saw more rain than average, the eastern and western portions of the country experienced significant deficits. The one constant: Conditions were extreme.

This map, derived from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis, illustrates the amount of rain across the country, relative to an average year. It shows data from January to August 2007, as compared to the average rainfall from 1992 to 2006.

Here's how NASA described and analyzed the image:

With our cities and farms, human culture is dependent on consistent rainfall. We plant crops when we expect enough rain to fall to nourish them. We build cities near waterways, where they have a reliable water supply and are easily accessible by boat. When rainfall deviates from normal patterns, disasters often result.

The image illustrates the severe drought conditions that settled over much of the eastern United States, particularly the Southeast, in the spring and summer of 2007. The only significant rain that came to the region during the period was from Tropical Storm Barry in June. Clearly, Barry did not deliver enough rain to break the drought; rainfall is still significantly below average in this image. The resulting dry conditions contributed to large wildfires that burned along the Florida-Georgia border in April and May.

Even while Atlanta, Georgia, recorded one of its driest years, Houston, Texas, set rainfall records. It is as if the United States were folded in half, and all of the rain ran towards the crease in the center, leaving the edges dry. A large area extending from Texas northward through the Dakotas received far more rain than normal as shown by the strip of green and blue up the center of the country. The unusual rainfall caused a series of devastating floods in January, May, June, July, and August. In late August, Tropical Storm Erin dropped very heavy rainfall over Texas and Oklahoma, adding additional water to the flooded area.

Like the East, much of the West received less rain than normal, though the deficit does not appear to be quite as severe as in the East. The drought dried vegetation, priming the landscape for the summer fire season. In 2007, large wildfires burned through many western states, including Idaho and Montana, Oregon, and Utah. By fall, conditions were dry enough that strong winds whipped several fires out of control in Southern California, destroying hundred of homes.

The United Nations has warned that flooding, droughts and other forms of extreme weather are likely to become more common due to global warming.

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