LITTLE ROCK — More than 83 percent of Arkansas is now in a severe drought, and with no rain in sight, forecasters say conditions stand to worsen rapidly.
The U.S. Drought Mitigation Center, a Lincoln, Neb., agency that monitors drought conditions across the country, said Thursday that 83.5 percent of Arkansas is in a severe drought, and a sliver of northeastern Clay County is in extreme drought.
Only a portion of southeastern Columbia County is not in drought at all.
Last week, the center considered 27 percent of the state in severe drought. Two weeks ago, only 2 percent was in severe drought.
“I’ve never been to the Sahara Desert,” said Jesse Bocksnick, the Sebastian County Cooperative Extension agent. “But I imagine it’d look like what Arkansas is starting to look like.”
Meteorologists don’t foresee any measurable rainfall through the rest of the month and into early July. Northwest Arkansas received a quarter of an inch of rain Thursday morning, but the rest of the state remained dry.
“There’s no appreciable precipitation in the forecast,” said John Lewis, a National Weather Service meteorologist in North Little Rock. “It’s not looking very rosy.”
The dry conditions have raised concern about fires, and county judges in 33 Arkansas counties have issued burn bans. Also, hayfields are drying up, leaving cattle producers fretting over feed supplies.
“There’s almost nowhere to get hay,” said Matt Flynt, a member of the Arkansas Cattlemen’s Association. “I bet nobody who’s 80 years old has ever seen the drought map look like it does now.”
The Drought Mitigation Center determined Thursday that 18 percent of the nation is in extreme drought, and 41 percent is either abnormally dry or in drought.
“Farmers are starting to need hay early, and there’s no surplus here,” Flynt said. “People are looking for it.”
Flynt said cattle farmers normally let their herds graze on grass throughout the summer and into October. They don’t usually begin feeding stored hay to their animals until winter, he said.
But this year, some farmers are already feeding cows hay, which will cut into the winter supply.
“It’s going to change the beef industry,” Flynt said. “I think a lot of cattlemen will have to sell parts of their herds.”
He said that will flood the cattle market, driving prices down.
“Someone said, ‘You can’t feed your way out of a drought,” Flynt said. “The economics add up. It’s hard to sell part of a herd you’ve worked with for a few years, but you may have to do it.”
Clay County Judge Gary Howell said the county’s abundant wells are saving some farmers’ crops.
“If not for that, we’d not be able to have crops,” he said. Farmers may see increased bills for fuel needed to run the well pumps, though, he said.
“The grass is crunchy,” Howell added. “When you cut hay, dust fogs behind the cutter. It’s like running through a plowed field.”
Forecasters say that from now until November, there’s some potential for a tropicalstorm season to deliver rain to the central Gulf states.
Tropical Storm Don hit the southern coast of Texas last week, dumping about 4 inches of rain in that droughtstricken area.
“A tropical storm could be a saving grace,” said Brian Fuchs with the Drought Mitigation Center. “But some areas of Arkansas are in deficit of 8 to 12 inches this year. How often do you get 12 inches of rain?”
He said the drought conditions can rapidly worsen. Ground moisture is needed to help fuel rainstorms. Without the moisture, fronts can pass through but produce little or no rain, he said.
Vegetation also helps put moisture into the air, which helps keep temperatures lower, he said.
“When you have a combination of dryness and warmer temperatures, they accumulate quickly and add to the drought.”
As for the fire risk, the Arkansas Forestry Commission responded to five times more wildfires in May than average for that month and about double the average number of blazes in June, officials said Thursday.
Assistant State Forester Don McBride said the commission counted 150 fires in May, compared with the typical May average of between 20 and 30.
As of Thursday, the state has had 139 fires this month — more than double the 50-fire average, McBride said. Those numbers are only for the wildfires to which the commission responded, he said.
“I expect that trend to continue through July, August and September if we do not get some rain in here to break this weather pattern,” he said.
June fires have burned 1,551 acres, McBride said — more than a quarter of the area of Hot Springs National Park. Those fires destroyed 10 buildings, including houses and outbuildings, and threatened 97 other structures, he said.
Statewide, 14 counties — including Pulaski, Faulkner, Miller and Union — are at high risk of wildfires, according to the Forestry Commission.
County burn bans typically restrict the burning of outdoor trash and debris. On Thursday, supervisors for Ozark-St. Francis National Forest and Ouachita National Forest issued burn bans for all campsites in the Arkansas and Oklahoma forests.
Also, the dry conditions have put added pressure on rural fire units, such as the West Pulaski Fire Department — a 50-volunteer department with four stations covering 170 square miles in Pulaski, Saline and Perry counties.
“Fire doubles every minute, so we’re trying to get [to the fire] within 10 to 15 minutes,” said department Chief Ronnie Wheeler. “Much more than that, it’s going to get to be a real big problem.”
His department is on high-response alert, with all available volunteers heading to the station to back up any responding companies just in case a wildfire warrants additional units, Wheeler said.
So far in June, the department has responded to about a dozen grass, brush and ditch fires, Wheeler said.
Fire crews in Enola responded to a Tuesday afternoon blaze that was started when a man cutting hay in his field mowed over a rock, creating sparks.
“[About the] time he got off his tractor, it done got so big he couldn’t do nothing with it,” said James Chance, fire chief for the Enola Area Volunteer Fire Department.
The fire grew to cover 25 acres, and crews battled it for four hours before getting it under control, Chance said.
Sparks, cigarettes and fireworks are the biggest threats right now, said Chance, Wheeler and Capt. Randy Hickmon of Little Rock Fire Department.
On Wednesday, teenagers shooting fireworks into the woods in west Little Rock caused a brush fire that burned about 20 acres over several hours.
Shooting off fireworks within the Little Rock city limits is illegal. Also, Pulaski County officials said fireworks fall under the burnban restrictions, and people who fire them off risk being held liable for any damage they cause.
Permitted fireworks displays, such as Pops on the River in Little Rock and the Greers Ferry Lake Fourth of July event, do not violate the burn ban because they are monitored by fire officials.
Overall, Hickmon said, safety trumps celebration with fireworks.
“I know we’re party poopers, but we saw [Wednesday] what can go wrong,” Hickmon said.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 06/22/2012