What Ever Happened to the Drought of 2000?
Adapted from Michigan State University’s Fruit Crop Advisory Team Alert, June 20, 2000, Jeff Andresen, Agricultural Meteorology Geography New National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) long term outlooks for the coming months have generally backed off of forecasts for drier than normal conditions in Michigan during the summer months, which represents a significant change from earlier forecasts. What happened? Earlier outlooks had called for increased odds of drier than normal conditions this summer, continuing a drier than normal trend that began back in the summer of 1998. During mid-April of this spring, a persistent, mostly zonal west to east upper air pattern set up across the US and Canadian border, bringing a series of low pressure areas and associated precipitation through the region. This pattern has resulted in above normal rainfall from the northern Great Plains eastward into sections of the Great Lakes region, including southern and central sections of Michigan.
