INDRA science

INDRA Texas Drought Project

The drought in southern Texas is devastating agriculture, and consuming vast energy resources for human comfort and irrigation. We are promoting an INDRA project that will both bring direct relief to the affected area, but also to ameliorate the problem long term with a desert based project in Mexico. Background: The cause of the droughts has been attributed to sunspot activity and water temperatures in the Pacific Ocean. Texas lies on the fringe of "the Great American Desert" and straddles the 30° North latitude where many deserts in the world can be found. People, plants, and animals living in deserts become adapted to these environments. Those living in areas that border deserts face unexpected droughts and suffer most because they are the most unprepared. Because the High Plains and Trans-Pecos regions of Texas are near the Chihuahua Desert, it is likely that these areas may be the most vulnerable to prolonged winter droughts. The Chihuahua Desert continually expands and contracts in response to El Nino and La Nina events in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Ecuador. El Nino events warm these waters, while La Nina events cool them. La Nina events can create ridges of high pressure that influence the flow of the jet stream and precipitation. As La Nina events occur, Texas often receives less than normal amounts of rainfall. Background: Wikipedia: The Dust Bowl of the 1930s is noted as a heavy drought across many states. 1934, 1936 and 1939 were extremely hot and dry years across the United States. Hot temperatures led to many people's, livestock's and animal deaths all over the United States. Hundred-degree temperatures would be very common over the United States; dust storms were common, everyone residing in the United States suffered. Making matters worse, these really damaging days of drought hit during when the Great Depression was affecting economies, families and children over the United States. The Northeastern United States were hit with devastating drought which lasted almost four or five years in the 1960s. The drought affected multiple regional cities from Virginia into Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York. And some Midwest States became victims of this notorious drought during the same time as the Northeast United States. Parallel or matching spells hit the Northeast United States during 1999-the Northeast, including Kentucky, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland were pummeled by extensive heat waves which killed almost 700 people across the Northeastern US and unusually dry conditions caused billions of dollars in destruction during 1999. This unusually damaging drought was reminiscent of the Northeast United States Drought of the 1960s considering it affected similar or matching states within the Northeast United States and New England.