June 4 – CNBC
(Emma Newburger):
“Nearly three-fourths of the U.S. West is grappling with the most severe drought in the recorded history of the U.S. Drought Monitor, as hot and arid conditions are set to exacerbate the threat of wildfires and water supply shortages this summer.
Parts of California, Nevada and Washington experienced sweltering triple-digit temperatures over the past week amid the drought…
Conditions this spring are much worse than a year ago. In fact, nearly half of the continental U.S. is in a moderate to exceptional drought, marking the most significant spring drought in the country since 2013, according to... the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.”
June 10 – Reuters
(Andrea Januta and
Daniel Trotta):
“The reservoir created by Hoover Dam… has sunk to its lowest level ever, underscoring the gravity of the extreme drought across the U.S. West.
Lake Mead, formed in the 1930s from the damming of the Colorado River at the Nevada-Arizona border about 30 miles (50 km) east of Las Vegas, is the largest reservoir in the United States.
It is crucial to the water supply of 25 million people including in the cities of Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix, Tucson and Las Vegas.
As of 11 p.m. PDT Wednesday, the lake surface fell to 1,071.56 feet above sea level, dipping below the previous record low set on July 1, 2016.”
June 9 – Bloomberg
(Kim Chipman):
“In the world of crops, angst over the weather has reached a fevered pitch.
Global inventories are shrinking and demand is on a tear as drought plagues farms in key producers from the U.S. and Brazil to Russia.
As a result, every rain shower and dry spell is coming under extreme scrutiny. Grain futures touched near-decade highs last month before paring gains amid a strong planting season.
Now, too little or too much rainfall in key producers will go a long way in determining if crop prices rally again or further retreat.
In the U.S., traders and investors usually focus on giant corn and soybean growers like Iowa and Illinois.
Now, they’re obsessing over droughts in second-tier producers in the Northern Plains.
Dry weather has already hurt Brazil’s corn crop at a time when China is scouring the globe for all the grains it can find to feed its hog herd, the biggest in the world.”