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CNN Live Today

National Weather Service Expects Drought This Summer

Aired June 13, 2002 - 14:34   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Conditions are right for many more fires, with many parts of the country already suffering from lack of rain. National Weather Service forecasters today updated the drought outlook for the summer and CNN environmental correspondent Natalie Pawelski joins us now with what they had to say.

And, it's not good, is it?

NATALIE PAWELSKI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Exactly right, Fredricka, it's not good news. The National Weather Service says that they're expecting hot and dry conditions to continue throughout the western United States for the rest of the summer.

If you take a look at the map outlook for the coming season, you'll see that there's a large part of the West that's expected to continue in drought, even get worse. The only part of the country, that little green stripe down along the southern Louisiana coast, is the only place that might actually be pulled out of drought. But for that large stripe of the West, where it is now so hot and so dry, those hot and dry conditions are expected to continue and even to spread.

Now, if we look at how we got here, the last few months have been extremely dry. Drought conditions have spread and intensified, to the point where right now about a third of the country is in drought. If you take a look at the darkest part of that map -- it's in the four corners region, exactly where all those fires are burning -- that's what they call an exceptional drought.

Just to give you an idea, Colorado has just finished its 12 driest months in its history -- or at least in the 107 years that anybody has been keeping records. After all those maps, I wanted to show you one piece of video that for me kind of sums up how bad this drought is.

Take a look. This sand bar, if you can believe it, is supposed to be the Rio Grande. The Rio Grande river is supposed to flow into the Gulf of Mexico at this point.

There is so little water in the river, that as you can see in this aerial, it falls short by a good couple hundred feet of its goal. That's how hot, how dry it is in the West -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: And water reservoirs are low everywhere. So what explains this, if there is a reasonable explanation, as to why the whole country is experiencing such a drought?

PAWELSKI: Forecasters tell me, that's what everybody wants to know. Is it El Nino, is it global warning? And they tell me, no. They say now and then you just get one of these exceptional droughts. They liken it to one back in the 1950s that, like this, covered so much of the West.

The West is always a dry area, but in this case, it is so many states over such a long period of time, and so severe. It's remarkable, but not unprecedented. They say it's just one of those things.

WHITFIELD: I wonder if that opens the door to really potentially dangerous situations, when we finally do get rain. That means that that only increases the possibilities of flash floods.

PAWELSKI: Yes, especially out in California.

(CROSSTALK)

PAWELSKI: And as well, we've seen in the last several years and the last several decades, so many more people move into the West, some of these places where drought is such an issue. More people means more of a drain on the water.

So you've got places like Colorado and New Mexico, where people are really pulling down the water table. Also moving into the woods, which are now all on fire. So it is quite a dangerous situation. The stakes are higher these days.

WHITFIELD: Yes, all right. Thanks very much for that very grim news. But that's the reality, isn't it? I know. We're not blaming you. All right, thanks a lot, Natalie.

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