Hays — The mercury's rising and records are falling as the heat wave tightens its grip on Kansas.
The Hays Daily News reports that extreme drought now covers two-thirds of the state.
Norton's high of 118 on June 28 broke the previous high of 113 set three days earlier.
The newspaper said Cedar Bluff hit 110 on June 26 and 29, tying the old record set June 15, 2003. Colby had a high of 113 on June 28.
Oakley hit 111 on June 25 and 28, matching the previous June 11, 1954, high.
High temperatures of 110 or above are becoming the new normal for many towns. But as the temperatures rise, water levels at rivers and streams in the northwest part of the state are falling.
Comments
Did_I_say_that 10 months ago
I am usually supportive of LJWorld and Lawrence Journal-World. However, to use an Associated Press story, that was taken from "The Hays Daily News" regarding such an obvious story, seems ... well ... (Fill In The Blank) .
Was it really necessary to use a third party re-write to report that it is hot?
Paul Decelles 10 months ago
Well the article does cover North West Kansas and it is newsworthy that the temperatures there are even (Fill in the blank) hotter than they are here and beginning to break the old 1930's records.
mikekt 10 months ago
Maybe LJW should check & see if the Corps of Engineers is still trying to keep Perry, Milford & Tuttle Creek in discharge mode, to support Mo. & Miss. River barge traffic ?
Nuts !!!!!
If so, what is their rational, what do our Kansas politicians think of the Corps rational & what plans do our politicians have, if we face the same kind 30s Dust Bowl problems down the road, that they have faced lately in Georgia, Texas, etc, where major supply lake / reservoirs simply evaporated leaving boat docks & thirsty people....... high & pretty well dry.
Municipal conservation from the Kansas River, is a double edged sword.
This is the time of year when water sales go up, while labor costs stay relatively fixed. The money maker.
So sumer is when they balance winters lack of high demand, as well as construction & repair costs, long term, etc..
Certainly, it comes with extra costs for chemicals & electricity for the pumps but the labor cost is ?.......Probably constant .
Simply said, allot of water flows by Lawrence to the Mo. River Barge Channel daily, wether we use it or not.........and that same water just supports a barge channel that is so deep by so wide in the Mo. River, that requires a huge amount of water compared to the daily draw of Lawrence Kansas, right now.
Well, conservation would save electricity if there was a shortage of that to meet the A/C demand in lawrence but there isn't & this is probably their money maker time of the year.....certainly, this year !
I personally would like to see the Corps leave the upstream reservoirs from Lawrence,.... alone. They will lower by evaporation,...... just fine on their own !
It's raining normally north of Kansas ! An area which is drained by the Mo. River .....& i am sure that the folks in Parkville, Mo. will be thrilled if they don't flood it again, by draining their overfilled northern mo. river basin reservoirs all at once, if they get large snow falls up north this winter.
deec 10 months ago
The drought in Nebraska is about like it is in Ks. http://drought.mssl.ucl.ac.uk/
mikekt 10 months ago
Try doing a search for drought maps at: noaa.gov . We are actually shorter on rainfall than all of Nebraska is, in Douglas County, Ks..
If you check out ch#41s 24hr weather on cable, their drought map on screen reconfirms this.
Hopefully this will pass but i would like to know that we have a plan.
Many people are born onto this earth into slow motion disaster zones, of lack of water resources, droughts, famines & land that doesn't feed them.
Given a choice, i'd rather go in an F-5.... than die of thirst slowly.
Given a choice, i would rather that society add drought to their list of FEMA "to do's" & preserve our water resources that are impounded in Federal Reservoirs, as opposed to using them to fueling a boat channel that is X # of feet Wide by X # of feet Deep moving @ 15 MPH past KCMO. That's one hell of allot of water that we can't just call back to our reservoirs at will, if we should be in a long term drought pattern here in Kansas.
Once had a opportunity to speak with a fire chief in O.P., who was a FEMA man & i made a point to tell him that in the event of a natural disaster such as a New Madrid 8 or 9, that the first responders should have the ability to create drinking water for them selves from lakes because they could loose the water systems for a while, because midwest geology isn't Fractured Rock like California geology & the shock waves will move us even at that great distance.
It's simple camping stuff that you can buy on line - or here or there, because a first responder becomes a victim in no time, without the remote ability to make clean drinking water & boiling takes time, fuel, a dangerous flame in after shocks & whatever,...... while refrigerated trucks full loads of ice are sent back & forth loaded from source to near the disaster & back again, with their original loads, as it happened in the New Orleans Hurricane !
Hint to "Preppers" ! We are used to turning the tap on,.... & flush technology ! Purify your own. Get a high capacity system with a reusable filter that can be back flushed with cleaned water to clean it out!
He just looked at me like i was from another planet;.... probably because FEMA still has had guys more or less named "brownie" running things, political folks that look good but who still don't get it ! .....it, being that things happen, that are outside of the planned box, in real life.
Somebody had the smarts to fight to save an old fire boat in the in San Francisco Bay, that was the only source of water to fight the fires that broke out in the S.F. Marina District that would have become a fire storm without its' pumps to get water from the bay onto shore, after that last big quake. No doubt others wanted that old fire boat retired & not replaced......so ?
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