https://phys.org/news/2018-08-despai...n-farmers.html
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A crippling drought is ravaging vast tracts of Australia's pastoral heartlands, decimating herds and putting desperate farmers under intense financial and emotional strain, with little relief in sight.
While the country is no stranger to "big drys" and its people have long had a reputation as resilient, the extreme conditions across swathes of Australia's east are the worst in more than 50 years.
A smattering of rain earlier this week did little to ease one of the driest starts to the year on record, turning pastures to dust and destroying huge areas of grazing and crop lands.
With no feed, farmers have been forced to ship in grain or hay from other parts of the country to keep sheep and cattle alive, spending thousands of extra dollars a week just to stay afloat.
Some exhausted graziers spend hours each day hand-feeding their stock because the ground is too dry for grass to grow. Others have been forced to shoot starving cattle.
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Europe
https://weather.com/news/news/2018-0...europe-farmers
***The damage is visible from space: Farm fields in Europe that were lush and green a month ago are now patches of dusty barren dirt.
In some places, more than half the harvest could be lost as farmers in a dozen or so countries deal with a once-in-a-generation drought and devastating heatwave, NBC News reports.
“I have never seen this type of hot and dry weather, and I’ve been farming over 30 years,” said Max Schulman.
Schulman, whose farm is about 35 miles from Helsinki, Finland, said only 3 inches of rain has fallen there since the end of April. He sees 10 to 14 inches most years.
The drought-plagued area stretches from Ireland and the United Kingdom through Norway, Sweden and Finland in the north, and from parts of France and Germany through Poland and into the Baltic states further south.
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USA Missouri
https://www.abc17news.com/weather/ex...ouri/779506111
USA Michigan
https://www.mlive.com/weather/index...._in_grips.html
USA Oregon
https://www.statesmanjournal.com/sto...lex/883522002/
and as usual the US southwest
very sad. wonder if food prices will go up (probably) and how much.
Multiple Droughts
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