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August 17, 2012--Signs emerge of slight relief from worst of drought (New York Times)

The worst drought in the United States in decades may be leveling off or even be easing slightly in some places, federal weather forecasters said Thursday in a report of little comfort to farmers and ranchers who already have begun tallying this year’s losses. While the latest forecast from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Prediction Center calls for the drought to linger in the nation’s breadbasket and parts of some mountain states at least through November, it said conditions were not expected to worsen. Conditions may even improve in the Southwest and in a band sweeping from South Dakota through a section of Iowa and east to southern Indiana, then south to Texas. Ed O’Lenic, a seasonal forecaster at the center, said his September-through-November outlook “is taking away the dry, but not necessarily making it wet.” Illinois’s state climatologist, Jim Angel, a drought expert, said he would describe the drought as “leveling off,” rather than easing. The rain and break in 100-degree temperatures come too late for most farmers and ranchers, who already have seen crops wither and pastures dry up.

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