Drought Threatening Corn, Wheat Crops...05/24/00
By Marcella S. Kreiter - UPI

Farmers fooled by warmer than usual weather in April planted their corn crops early and now face losing a substantial portion of the fall harvest to drought. In Kansas, hot, dry weather is seeing the wheat crop deteriorate.

Across the United States, some of the worst drought conditions in years are conjuring up images of the Dust Bowl days of the 1930s.

The National Weather Service this week said the January through April period was the warmest such period in the United States since record-keeping began in 1894. The temperature averaged 44.3 degrees, up 0.3 of a degree over 1990, the second warmest period, and 70 percent of the United States was warmer than normal. Last week, the weather service's long-term forecast called for significant drought this summer.

A new report to be released Thursday by the Center for Health and Global Environment at Harvard Medical School, the Center for Climate Systems Research at Columbia University and Iowa State University at a congressional briefing in Washington warns a shift to warmer temperatures could spell crop disaster in the future, with potential increases in outbreaks of crop diseases, pests and weeds.

Corn Belt crop specialists are warning that unless there's some rain soon, much of this year's Nebraska corn crop will be in jeopardy.

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