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posted by martyb on Thursday August 10 2017, @04:31PM   Printer-friendly
from the higher-food-prices-coming dept.

CleanTechnica reports

The "flash drought" that came out of nowhere this summer in the US High Plains, afflicting Montana and the Dakotas the worst, has already destroyed more than half of this year's wheat crop, going by some recent field surveys. Considering that the region is now one of the top wheat-growing regions in the world, the damage is very notable.

These so-called flash droughts are expected to become considerably more common over the coming decades as the climate continues warming and weather patterns continue changing.

[...] Something that's interesting to note here is that 2011, only 6 years back, was actually one of the wettest years on record in eastern Montana. Those sorts of rapid swings between extreme precipitation and flooding on the one hand, and extreme flash droughts on the other, are only going to become more common from here on out. Eventually, most of the agriculture in the region will have to cease.

Grist calls this a Cereal Killer.


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  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Friday August 11 2017, @12:21AM

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Friday August 11 2017, @12:21AM (#551967) Journal

    Because markets are known for acting rationally and not as a schizophrenic collection of random events. /s

    They're better than panic stories in the media. And look at it this way, if there really is a nasty downturn in agricultural production about to happen, anyone in the know has plenty of opportunity to profit from that knowledge.