More Than 60% Of The United States Now In Drought Or Abnormally Dry - ABC

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STEELE, N.D. Jul 29, 2006 (AP)— More than 60 percent of the United States now has abnormally dry or drought conditions, stretching from Georgia to Arizona and across the north through the Dakotas, Minnesota, Montana and Wisconsin, said Mark Svoboda, a climatologist for the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln.

An area stretching from south central North Dakota to central South Dakota is the most drought-stricken region in the nation, Svoboda said. "It's the epicenter," he said. "It's just like a wasteland in north central South Dakota."

Conditions aren't much better a little farther north. Paul Smokov and his wife, Betty, raise several hundred cattle on their 1,750-acre ranch north of Steele, a town of about 760 people. Fields of wheat, durum and barley in the Dakotas this dry summer will never end up as pasta, bread or beer. What is left of the stifled crops has been salvaged to feed livestock struggling on pastures where hot winds blow clouds of dirt from dried-out ponds.

Some ranchers have been forced to sell their entire herds, and others are either moving their cattle to greener pastures or buying more already-costly feed. Hundreds of acres of grasslands have been blackened by fires sparked by lightning or farm equipment.

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http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2252667&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312

[Broken_Hero]

1. It's crazy...

In SW Missouri, last year was a disater, as far as rainfall/heat wave is concerned. Last year, it seemed, we were in a burn ban, for 9 months, if not more, and that ban creeped into January of this year. We are currently under a burn ban, because of the high heat, and no rain. Its absolutely crazy. I am from SE Alaska, and my hometown, on average gets between 180-200 inches of rain a year, and never in my life, would I ever think, that I would miss the rain, but I do now!...:)

Its crazy though...a lot of the farmers, in my area are, well, cattle/chicken farmers, and my neighbor who raises cattle, is going through hell, trying to grow his own hay, and the prices of hay have gone up pretty high, because of the lack of it...my neighbor is in the process of selling off his cows, because he cannnot sustain them for much longer...