NEWS FLASH: Drought ends at Ponderosa

Bilbo Baggins said:
How is the water table looking in SW Kansas? I suppose it is dropping.
Click to expand...

I am sure it is. I am trying to scan an old publication from GWD #3 that shows the Average Water Level Changes in SW Kansas. If I get it done I will post it. It is old, but still pretty impressive.
 
I heard from a farmer friend in the area that the number dropped like a rock but I just don't remember how many feet he said the water table actually dropped. I just wonder if it ever gets to the point where farmers cannot even irrigate anymore.
 
For some reason I am not getting a scan to work tonight.

No date on this publication by GMD #3(Groundwater Management District #3), but it talks about the 1997 budget for the group, so suspect it was about that time. There is a map that shows the drop for each county. Here is what it says:

Water levels in the High Plains (Ogallala) Aquifer have changed significantly since the 1940's(predevelopment).....Water level declines in Southwest Kansas have been the greatest in the entire 8-state High Plains region since 1980.

Here are the numbers from the map for each county listed:
Hamilton -67'
Kearney -41'
Finney -51'
Stanton -109'
Grant -129'
Haskell -86'
Gray -38'
Ford -12'
Morton -36'
Stevens -39'
Seward -28'
Meade -36'

Again, remember the publication I am looking at is probably looking at data from the late 1990's.

http://www.gmd3.org/

In another newsletter from GMD #3, that I cannot put my hands on at the moment, it talks about the natural recharge to the aquifer being less than one inch per year.
 
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Maybe we should all dig a trench from the Missouri River to Western Kansas... Plenty for everyone at this point, and in some cases, too damn much.
 
Here is what it can look like. This is one of my food plots in 2008.

stick26Aug08002.jpg


This year-

IMG_0642.jpg
 
It was 111 degrees in Amarillo, Texas last weekend. That was the hottest temperature ever, ever recorded in or around that city.

There are distant signs that drought relief may be on the way. We have three good signs.
1. The southwest monsoon (in Arizona & New Mexico) that typically begins in early July, has already started. This is tropical moisture from the south pacific.
See nation radar below:

http://i.imwx.com/web/radar/us_radar_plus_usen.jpg

Once this flow gets started (on a daily basis) all we need is the "dry line" from S.E. Colorado or N.E. New Mexico to get good showers started over the Texas & Oklahoma panhandle and S.W. Kansas.

2. An unusually strong summer time cold wet front now moving through central California, that front can draw moisture up into from the pacific and the Gulf of Mexico as it move eastward and drop that moisture over the S.W. including Texas, N.W. Oklahoma and S.W. Kansas.

3. The tropical disturbance now in the S.W. Gulf of Mexico can also bring moisture northward into S.W. by next week.

Tropical moisture that drops an inch or two inches of rain is full of aerial nitrogen and other ions and minerals that will cause the vegetation to quickly turn green, and the insects and wildlife will respond.
 
There are lots of adult birds. There is lots of time for them to renest if the weather changes. I have seen birds lots of times early season that were hatched in late August. I was out working in Finney county with the dozer on my farm and saw 3 clutches. They had about 6 to 8 birds each and were less than 2 weeks old. The hens are bringing them to the windmill for water. I saw a couple coyotes hanging out there also so I am taking .17 back with me when I go. I also have seen some newly hatched quail here in east central Kansas. We are supposed to get hot also but we aren't dry yet.
 
I jokingly told our delivery driver that I would call him if the roads were too muddy for a job site delivery in Hodgeman County of a big order in the morning and there were plenty of hee haws from the people that overheard the conversation-----but who knows.
 
100 degrees

I thought the South had the hot weather.......

but ya'll are having some heat.
We've broken a couple of records in the past couple of weeks in South Georgia, but nothing like what you are having.

101 is high for us.
 
M.R.- what the farmers are wondering about arround here is that water table-

interesting- my well water isn't the same tasting it was last summer-
mentioned that to a couple farmers- they just said "we think there's plenty of water bit if it continues like this there may be some big issues"
 
I heard rumors today of a couple wells going dry in the Ashland area. Not confirmed, just rumors at the moment.

There is some talk with the crop scouts that they could start advising clients soon if the hot weather doesn't break to abandon half the circle and start wiping the other half. I suspect some are close to allocation and some are having water level issues.

I have a windmill which does not work on the ground I purchased recently. I checked the water level in the well a few months ago and there was only ten feet. I have a feeling that the casing has filled with sugar sand and plan to have it bucketed out. When I get a chance I will drop a line in it and see how much water I have now.
 
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We got some rain last nite. Not for sure how much but not alot. We were very hot on Thursday, 106, but only 93 yesterday. Really thursday is the only hot day we have had. The nw corner dodged the drought for the most part and has avoided the heat.
 
Good deal. Hope it was enough to prime the pump and get the rain started.
 
About 7 tonight according to the radar we had storms on 5 sides of us. I got a call from dispatch as the thunder was waning, fire on the wildlife area! I ran over lights and siren to "open the gates" for the fire department. They had already gotten in with bolt cutters. It burned less than an acre. You couldn't have picked a better place for it to have started. It was against the north road with a light SE wind. It might be 50 yards long by 40 yards wide at it's widest point. The fire fighter running the bolt cutters even left me enough chain that I could lock everything back when we left. They spotted the smoke driving back to station from their previous call! The other department was also out on a lightning strike call. That makes at least 3 from the sevaral storms in the area.
 
I just checked the radar and the line of storms that angles northeast from the Stafford/Pratt county line to north of Manhattan is going to miss us too. We seem to be in the proverbial hole this year. Some rain had better come soon! I'm guessing we're about 8 inches behind for the year. Add the number of 100 degree days and the wind and we're going to watch for scaled, mearns, and gambles quail moving into the area this fall. That is if the sidewinders don't get them first!
 
Thank the good Lord above, we picked up .75 inches this afternoon!!! With all night for it to soak in, we ought to get the most out of it!
 
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