(9 Oct 2019) FOR CLEAN VERSION SEE STORY NUMBER: apus124889
In a vast expanse of the South that spans from Texas to Maryland, there are growing concerns for the cattle, cotton and corn amid a worsening drought that was fueled this summer by record hot temperatures.
One of the bullseyes marking the nation's driest areas is Bartow County, Georgia, where extreme drought conditions have kicked up buckets of dust and left cattle pastures bare.
It has been among the hardest-hit areas in the more than 12 southern states where 45 million residents are now living in some type of drought conditions, the most recent U.S. Drought Monitor report shows.
Across the South, the drought has ravaged the pastures where cattle and other livestock feed.
The majority of them are in either poor or very poor condition in Georgia, Alabama, Kentucky, Tennessee, the Carolinas and West Virginia, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported in its most recent crop report.
Pasture and range conditions were in even worse shape in Virginia, where 71 % of the land is in poor or very poor shape.
"Looking ahead if we don't get enough rain and the pastures don't recover, we'll be dipping into winter feeding hay before time, or have to liquidate some cattle," said Dean Bagwell, a cattle farmer in Bartow County, northwest of Atlanta.
A new report on the drought is expected later Thursday showing the damage already done, but now Bagwell and other farmers are concerned about the long-term outlook as late October is among the driest periods of the year in the South.
The good news for farmers: Long-range forecasts point toward above-normal precipitation in the Southeast later this month, according to the Climate Prediction Center.
In coming years, climate change is expected to intensify droughts and increase their frequency, scientists warned in the National Climate Assessment released by the White House last year.
Heat waves such as the one that brought record-breaking temperatures to the South this summer are expected to hit the region harder than others in the U.S. in coming years, the report states. Cities with a particularly high risk of future heat waves include Memphis, Tennessee; and Raleigh, North Carolina. New Orleans and Birmingham, Alabama, are also cited in the report as having trends toward more intense and frequent heat waves.
The combination of dry weather and intense heat can create drought conditions relatively quickly, leading forecasters to call this one a "flash drought."
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