Flooding, drought challenge world records

Extreme weather continues to hit much of the U.S. as well as the rest of the world. Since the beginning of this year, more than 50,000 weather records in the U.S. have been tied or broken. Deadly tornadoes, torrential rains, damaging winds, lowland flooding and droughts have been reported across the globe this year.

Heavy rainfall has led to millions of acres of crops being washed out in at least a dozen counties in Canada and the U.S. Farmers in Manitoba and Saskatchewan suffered through their wettest spring season in at least 110 years. Muddy fields have made it impossible for most to navigate their tractors. Because of a shorter growing season, it’s now too late to plant millions of acres of crops in these two provinces.

All-time record rains have also fallen across much of central and eastern Europe. Tens of thousands of people have had to be evacuated from their flooded homes. More than 90 percent of the rich farmland in eastern Croatia was under water. In Austria, record flooding disrupted rail service and cut a border crossing with Germany. In June, Slovakia’s flooding was described as “the worst in centuries.” Thousands of homes were flooded and most of the lowland farms were under water.

On the flip side, severe drought and record heat continue to stress crops in northern and central China. In southern China, record flooding has led to the collapse of more than 140,000 houses as nearly 2 million people were forced to seek higher ground. Water levels in many lakes and rivers were higher than in 1998, when catastrophic flooding along the Yangtze River killed an estimated 4,000 people.

Here in the U.S., we’ve seen all-time record rains and flooding this spring and early summer in the upper Midwest as well as the northern and central Great Plains. Many soybean, wheat and corn crops were hurt, and harvested acres will be lower than normal. Now, triple-digit heat and high humidity has moved into those regions.

With a strong high-pressure ridge to our east, the weather across the Inland Northwest should be pleasant with seasonable temperatures into next week. A round of much hotter weather is expected near the full moon in late July. High temperatures will likely soar well into the 90s in Spokane and surrounding areas. Don’t be too surprised to see readings top 100 at that time. More hot weather is expected around late August as well.