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WEATHER
(Continued from page 5)
water districts in Marin County
north of San Francisco were ratio–
ning water to both commercial and
residential users.
Meteorologists are not hopeful for
the next few months at all. Many
fear quick springtime thaws which
would release all those billions ·or
gallons of stored water, sending icy
torrents cascading down streams
and rivers. taking out docks and
bridges, swelling over millions of
acres of land, causing billions of
dollars of damage to both cities and
farmland a like.
Worsenlng Drought
But it's the summer most weath–
ermen are concerned . about. From
all indications, a sweltering summer
will be following on the heels of the
frigid winter. And not only hot.
but
dry.
The drought which has been
gradually spreading over the past
severa! years from the Southwest
into the northern Plains states seems
certain to intensify.
Minnesota, parts of which have
been in the grip of a drought for
three consecutive years, is perhaps
the hardest hit. But it is a lso ex–
tremely dry in the Dakotas, Wiscon–
sin and Iowa. lowa's drought is the
worst in
104
years, ever since rec–
ords have been kept in that state.
Serious moisture shortages affect 11-
linois, Indiana. Missouri , Kansas
and Nebraska as well. Throughout
much of this breadbasket area there
is virtually no moisture reserve in
the soil. Because the dry winter soi l
is frozen, the snow-where it has
fallen- may not add significantly to
soil moisture even when it thaws.
Without a gentle thaw followed by
persisten! spring rains, there simply
won't be enough moisture in the soil
to nourish spring crops properly.
Sorne climatologists fear there cou ld
be massive topsoi l blow-offs- a re–
minder of the bleak Dust Bowl days
of the 1930s.
In California, the second dry win–
ter in a row has left precious little
snowpack in the Sierras. This sum–
mer's runoff for irrigation will be so
sparse that farmers in the state's
The
PLAIN TRUTH April 1977
mammoth Central Valley may suf–
fer water delivery cutbacks up to 75
percent. Crop cutbacks of this size
will deal a severe blow to the state,
where agriculture is the biggest in–
dustry, bringing in over $8 billion
annually.
"Never Run Out of Food"?
The winter of '77 has a lready added
a multibillion-dollar "tax" on the
American economy in sharply esca–
lated fuel costs, crippling President
Carter's economic
stimulu~
pro–
gram. And if the months ahead turn
out to be as bad as sorne mete–
orologists predict, the nation's food
bill could rise dramatically.
The destruction of winter vege–
table crops in Florida and elsewhere
has already cut supplies and shot up
prices. Continued dry condi tions
a lso mean a thinning out of cattle
herds, leading to lower meat prices
now, but higher prices in the
months ahead.
The size of the winter wheat crop
is declining wi th every Agriculture
Department crop estíma te. Only the
huge carry-overs of wheat from the
record 1976 production will stabilize
wheat prices and supplies this year.
Many Americans- so used to liv–
ing in coqtinual good times- seem
incapable of grasping that condi–
tions
could get much worse;
that
weather chaos could produce not
only short-term food supply prob–
lems or temporary price increases–
but actually result in drastic food
shortages.
During the mid-l960s one
Plain
Truth
reporter toured arcas of Kan–
sas tha t were then stricken by
drought and found many wheat ele–
vators empty. One prominent Kan–
sas politician nevertheless summed
up the attitude of a lot of people
then-an attitude that still lingers
today. " I don't think we will ever get
into a situation where we will not
have enough for our own needs. We
have grown wheat over such a wide
arca and under such widely varying
conditions that we just could never
get enough bad weather or enough
worms, or enough freezes or any–
thing else, to reduce the supply that
much."
How smugly confident people can
be! Meo always seem to speak in
terms of "hard luck" or parro! the
words of scientists who talk about
"cycles." Or perhaps when weather
ioterferes with their pleasures, they
may do as sorne of those at a ski
resort in Colorado did recently
when they didn't have enough snow
for skiing: they asked a nearby In–
dian tri be to come over and put on a
"snow dance" for them!
Why Bad Weather?
Everyone is wondering right now
what's gone wrong with the weather.
Meteorologists point out that
there has been a shift in the direc–
tion of the high-level westerly
winds- especially the jet stream–
w4ich course through the upper at–
mosphere high above Canada and
the United States. During this past
winter season, these winds have cut
across the Rockies much farther to
the north, picking up frigid arctic
air, and then, as they streamed to–
ward the south and east. dipped
much farther south than usual.
But what caused a change in these
wind patterns?
Scientists can only
speculate on that. As a UPI press
release reported on January 29,
1977: "Weather scientists know a
shift in high-altitude wind patterns
is responsible for the unusually per–
sistent cold weather in the eastern
half of the United States,
but they
are at a loss to explain what caused
the wind changes."
Other weather officials have also
been puzzled over the spotty nature
of the long dry spells which, espe–
cially last summer. struck many
arcas of our importan! food-grain
states. Many commented that the
droughts seemed to be almost
county by county, and acre by acre!
One farmer would report that
rainfall was normal or near normal
in his a rca. and he was having good
crops, while another nearby neigh–
bor perhaps
even in the same county
would report devastating drought!
This is drama tic fulfillment of a pas–
sage in the book of Amos in the
Bible: "And also I have withholden
the rain from you, when there were
yet three months to the harvest: and
I caused it to rain upon one city,
and caused it not to rain upon an–
other city: one piece was rained
upon, and the piece whereupon it
rained not withered. So two or three
cities wandered unto one city, to
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