Satellite images show California turning brown from its three-year drought, says Weather.com, which posted pictures taken by NASA’s Aqua satellite in mid-2011 and this summer. “In the animated image, California’s Central Valley appears to have lost much of its plant life, as the green portion in the middle of the image has thinned in the last three years. Also, it’s important to note how much of the brown shading in western California has turned a lighter shade – likely signifying dried-out lakes and parched soil,” says Weather.com. It quotes NASA climatologist Bill Patzert as saying, “Even with a possible El Niño lurking in the tropical Pacific, there is no quick fix to this drought.”
Widespread showers and thunderstorms poured up to 2 inches of rain on eastern Texas, southwestern Kansas and central and southeastern Oklahoma last week, easing drought conditions in the central and southern Plains, said the Drought Monitor. The Monitor said 33.62 percent of the contiguous 48 states was in drought, down from 34.16 percent a week earlier. Over the past two months, precipitation has been at normal levels in most of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, eastern Colorado and New Mexico.