Despite getting some large snow storms last month, much of the United States is still desperate for relief from the nation’s longest dry spell in decades. Experts say it will take a very large amount of snow to ease the worries of farmers and ranchers.
Winter storms have dropped more than 15 inches of snow on parts of the Midwest and East in recent weeks. However, climatologists say it would take at least 8 feet of snow–and likely far more– to return the soil to its pre-drought conditions in time for spring planting. A foot of snow is roughly equal to an inch of water, depending on the density.
When asked how much snow would be required to replenish the soil, Dave Pearson, a National Weather Service hydrologist in Omaha, Nebraska, said “An amount nobody would wish on their worst enemy.” “It’s so out of this world it wouldn’t make much scientific sense to guess. It would take a record-breaking snowfall for the season to get us back on track,” Pearson said.
Many areas are begging for moisture after a summer that caused water levels to fall to near-record lows on lakes Michigan and Huron, and the Mississippi River. Out West, firefighters worry that a lack of snow will leave forests and field like tinder come spring, rishing a repeat of the wildfires that burned some 9.2 million acres in 2012.
