Drought Impacts Summary November 2023

Above image: Engineers with the Louisiana Army National Guard’s 527th Engineer Battalion, 225th Engineer Brigade work in conjunction with the Louisiana Agriculture and Forestry Department to clear and widen fire lanes in Singer, Louisiana, to help prevent the spread of wildfires in the area. (Courtesy of the Louisiana National Guard) The National Guard,  CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons.

Much of the U.S. was warm and dry in November, with rapid drought development affecting parts of the eastern U.S. in the first half of the month. Of the 158 impacts describing drought effects in November, 29 of them detailed lingering agricultural impacts in Texas, even as the drought depiction improved for the Lone Star State. North Carolina and Virginia followed with 20 and 18 impacts, respectively, noting water restrictions and burn bans.

Hundreds of wildfires burned in the central and southern Appalachians from West Virginia to north Georgia amid warm, breezy weather during fall fire season ( The Washington Post ). There were 80 fires in West Virginia, 60 in Kentucky, and dozens in Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina and Georgia. Burn bans were in effect for much of the area with active fires. States of emergency were declared in  Virginia ,  North Carolina  and  Kentucky . Smoke from the wildfires diminished air quality in much of Virginia, the Carolinas and Georgia, plus parts of Florida, as indicated by  AirNow .

Losses to Louisiana’s agriculture and forestry totaled $1.69 billion due to this summer’s drought and extreme heat, according to preliminary estimates from  LSU AgCenter . Long stretches of record heat and little to no rain led to yield and quality losses and increased production costs for row crops, fruits, nuts and vegetables. Livestock producers dealt with animal health issues and struggled to grow adequate forage. Wildfires charred valuable timber, while crawfish producers monitored the threat of saltwater intrusion.

This year has been Louisiana’s worst wildfire season in a century as fires, which were most intense from August through October, consumed 62,000 acres of mostly forestland and destroyed $71 million in timber, according to LSU AgCenter ( Shreveport Times ).

Saltwater creeping up the Mississippi River has contaminated water supplies for some southeastern Louisiana communities. Fortunately, the saltwater intrusion was advancing more slowly than previously anticipated, leaving New Orleans and Jefferson parishes unaffected ( NOLA.com ).

An intense summer of heat and drought damaged pecan and peanut crops in Gulf Coast states. In Texas, pecan trees were expected to produce about 32 million pounds of nuts, compared to 60-70 million pounds in a good year ( Fort Worth Report ). Despite the small crop, pecan experts said that prices would not rise, nor would there be a pecan shortage. Drought, extreme heat and cold have caused the deaths of 20% of pecan trees.

The Louisiana pecan crop was better than growers hoped, but the pecans were smaller this year and will take more pecans to make a pound ( KALB-TV ). The leaves on pecan trees had begun to yellow, an indication that the drought likely damaged the trees long-term. Next year’s crop may suffer from drought this year.

A late freeze, intense summer heat and drought led to a poor pecan crop in Mississippi ( WJTV TV 12 ). About 10% of the state’s pecan orchards are irrigated and were better able to cope with the drought, but the heat caused the pecan kernels to darken and have vein lines.

Various factors led to this year’s poor pecan crop, which could also have an impact next season, said Eric Stafne, fruit and nut specialist with the Mississippi State University Extension Service.

“Despite the late freeze, some trees still set a decent crop, but the heat and drought caused poor nut fill and dropped immature nuts during the summer,” he said. “The drought could have carryover effects into next year, too, by reducing development of fruiting buds.”

Texas’ peanut crop also suffered due to drought in a second straight challenging year ( AgriLife Today ). Irrigation was needed to grow a crop with average yield per acre. The season was a rough one for those unable to provide enough water for the crop. Drought also slowed production, and the peanuts needed more time to mature.

Drought also took a toll on Alabama peanuts, with 2023 being one of the worst peanut harvests in years ( WSFA ).

In North Carolina, warm, dry weather diminished flows in the Catawba River. On Nov. 2, the Catawba-Wateree Drought Management Advisory Group announced that the Catawba-Wateree River Basin was in Stage 1 of the group’s Low Inflow Protocol. This required the first phase of operational adjustments at Duke Energy’s hydroelectric facilities, with voluntary water conservation strongly encouraged ( The McDowell News ).

Several boat ramps around Lake Norman of Catawba were closed due to drought and a stage 1 drought announcement by Duke Energy ( Queen City News ). The last time those access areas closed was in 2016 during a drought.

As of Nov. 6, Lake Norman was nearing 6 feet below full pond, which makes the ramp shorter with sharp drop-offs from the launch ramp to the lakebed, making it precarious to launch boats. The shallow water also presented a lot of hazards for boaters.

Tennessee has suffered from a lack of rain, which has reduced river flows and parched pastures ( WHNT ). In the first half of November, the Tennessee River and other large area rivers were flowing at normal levels, but tributary rivers in the Tennessee Valley were only flowing at 5 to 10% of normal. The Tennessee Valley Authority has responded to drought by releasing less water through its dams in favor of keeping more water in its reservoirs ( WVLT ). With less water passing through the hydroelectric dams, less power is generated. TVA has been operating at about 60% of its normal level.

Drought has also dried up Tennessee pastures, leaving cattle farmers worrying about long-term effects on their grass ( Successful Farming ). A commercial cow/calf producer in Kingston in eastern Tennessee reported that several weeks of dry weather caused his pastures to turn brown, leaving them looking like they would in January.

The Mississippi River has been very low this fall just as it was last year, requiring dredging to continue later in the season to keep the channel open ( WWNO 89.9 ).  Since June, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has spent $38 million to maintain the channel, mostly through dredging, moving the equivalent of 5,000 Olympic-sized pools of sediment. Dredging, which began earlier this year, may stretch into six months this year.

The Mississippi River at St. Louis was about a foot and a half below normal and was forecast to fall to 5.2 feet below normal by mid-December, which would be the sixth lowest on record ( FOX2 Now ). Concern about low river levels has led to weekly meetings between the U.S. Coast Guard and the Corps to take proactive steps to keep channels open for navigation.

In response to persistent drought in the Midwest, some towns in Iowa and Kansas are ramping up water conservation efforts and hoping for relief ( The Wall Street Journal ). Caney, Kansas, in the southeast part of the state, will run out of water by March 1 without rain.  In October, the school district shifted to a four-day week to conserve water.

Near Belle Plaine, Iowa, streams and tributaries of the Iowa River have very little to no water and were carpeted with weeds. Water was being drawn from an emergency well that yielded water high in iron and manganese and needed to be diluted. In Osceola, Iowa, officials were considering the use of recycled wastewater to supplement the water supply.

Drought has reduced the supply of locally grown Christmas trees in parts of the southern U.S. this season ( Brownfield Ag News ). Extra trees were being imported from northern regions to supplement regional trees, according to the executive director of the Real Christmas Tree Board. Drought in parts of the Pacific Northwest and Upper Midwest will also require increased seedling plantings next year to compensate for lost trees. Drought wiped out many of the seedlings that were planted this spring in many states, including  Nebraska ,  Kansas ,  Missouri ,  Texas ,  Virginia  and  Florida .