My dad used to recount a favorite story about a day in 1935, when, in the worst of the Dirty Thirties, he and his brother Kenneth walked across a completely dry basin that had formerly held Lake Benton.
Yes, tornadoes, flooding, habitat destruction, wildfire potential, eight month winters now the weather outlook is for the Dust Bowl to return to the chemical toilet, perpetual welfare state and permanent disaster area that is South Dakota.
Ellwyn Taylor spoke Tuesday on “Climate Trends for 2020 and Beyond” at the Southeast Research Farm’s annual meeting in Yankton. South Dakota State University’s Cooperative Extension Service operates the farm southwest of Beresford. The United States is moving toward a dust bowl similar to the Depression with its “Dirty ‘30s,” Taylor predicted. “We’ve seen dust bowls in 1847 and 1936, which would put the next Dust Bowl at 2025.” One of the significant areas of change in corn production has come in South Dakota. “Look at the extent now in South Dakota, the acres that are in corn production as compared to what it was at the end of 1950,” he said. [Yankton Press & Dakotan]The grassland fire danger will reach the high category Thursday for parts of western South Dakota.
Ash and soot from wildfires in the Siberian taiga are accelerating the loss of Arctic sea ice driving more frequent and deeper polar vortexes. Very soon the Yellowstone supervolcano will finally put South Dakota out of its misery.
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In 2016 there were 143 impaired waterbodies in South Dakota; today there are at least 170: Pierre Capital Journal.
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