Heat/Drought Impacts Span Most Of US; Wheat, Beef, Peanuts, Rice, Sugarcane Hit; Irrigation In West Hitting Limits
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All across the lower 48 states, farmers like Perry are reeling from the hottest and third-driest September to February stretch on record. As of March 31, the last date for which data is available, nearly 60 percent of the U.S. was in drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. With the exception of the Midwest’s sprawling corn and soybean farms, the dire conditions encompass many of the regions that grow the country’s food, from peanuts in the South to wheat and cattle in the Great Plains to produce in the Southwest. If the combination of rainfall shortages and unprecedented heat continues, experts say, it could have ripple effects through the nation’s food supply, with some products, like beef, already projected to see prices surge. “We’re in a position here where we’re going into the growing season and into the spring with record low or near-record low soil moisture across the country,” said Department of Agriculture meteorologist Brad Rippey. “Things are bad and getting worse in a hurry.”
Some of the driest conditions are in the South, where the growing season is well underway. More than three-quarters of sugarcane-producing areas, 83 percent of rice-producing areas and a whopping 96 percent of the peanut-producing region is besieged by drought. Unseasonable winter warmth, punctuated by a unusual February freeze, also caused damage to many fruit trees in the region. These occasional cold bursts, caused by waviness in the jet stream that allows Arctic air to plunge south, have become more frequent in recent decades, Rippey said.
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In the Cascade Mountains of the Pacific Northwest, 30 inches of snow water equivalent disappeared in a matter of days. The Arkansas-White-Red river basin, which stretches from Colorado to the Mississippi River, contains just 8 percent of its average snowpack moisture. “There are simply no analogous years to this one,” Gerlich said.These conditions bear unmistakable fingerprints of caused climate change, scientists say. Higher temperatures allow the atmosphere to hold more water vapor, pulling moisture out of soils and plants. This phenomenon leads to longer and more intense dry spells, as well as more severe storms that drop huge amounts of rain faster than the landscape can absorb it.
The effects could be particularly severe for irrigated farms, which account for the majority of human water consumption in the American West. Water in the region is governed by seniority — those who most recently got the rights to use water are the first to lose access during times of drought. In Washington’s Yakima River Basin, now facing a record fourth consecutive year of drought, anyone whose water rights were issued later than 1905 will receive just 44 percent of their usual entitlement, according to a March announcement from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. Junior rights holders along other rivers, including the hotly-contested Colorado, could face similar cutbacks in the coming months.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2026/04/07/drought-heat-farming-impacts-food-prices/
https://wapo.st/47MEyaF