Just As Flood Waters Recede, More Rain Is Coming

Flood damage to wheat undetermined; corn may have to be replanted.

Published on: April 29, 2009
Just as the flood waters begin to go down, the storm clouds are moving in and farmers are getting braced for the next wave.

So far, there seems to be general agreement that standing water was of short enough duration that the wheat crop might have escaped with only minor damage. But repeated problems with streams that overflow are not making anybody smile and farmers who had newly planted corn fields flooded will probably be looking at replanting -- provided of course that it dries out in time to plant corn.

I asked a number of people for an estimate of how many acres of farmland have been inundated in the last few days and nobody was willing to even take a guess. But it is a lot -- in the tens of thousands of acres.

Charlie Perry, a hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Lawrence, was willing to predict how long the wet weather will last however. He says his studies of solar activity and ocean currents indicated a wet period for 2007 and 2009 and this pattern is likely to stick around until July.

And look out for 2012 and 2013, he warns. They will be a repeat of 1993 to 1995 for serious Mississippi River flooding.

Perry, who bucks the USGS official position that global warming is caused by man-made carbon emissions, says his research has nothing to do with carbon dioxide and everything to do with the power of the sun.

Whatever he uses, he has a pretty good track record. He predicted this year's dry winter and wet spring back in 2006.
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