Manley Remembers Minnesota’s 1930’s Droughts

By Paul Homewood

 

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/68067481?searchTerm=minnesota%20drought%201934&searchLimits=

 

Reader Manley Kjonaas commented on a previous post:-

I am 96 years old and well remember the 1930′s when I lived in Minnesota. I know Minnesota did not get as warm and dry as a number of other states but I do remember that the warm summers and drought lasted for a continuous 5 years (1932 to 1937). Most of the 10,000 lakes in Minnesota dried up or dropped many feet in water levels.

Manley’s memory certainly serves him well. Take, for instance, 1933.

 

 

http://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/orders/IPS-8EAD2685-1D3F-4584-8B3A-16344F0D5904.pdf

 

The precipitation figures show just how dry the 1930’s were.

 

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/temp-and-precip/time-series/index.php?parameter=pcp&month=12&year=2012&filter=60&state=21&div=0

 

Not only have recent years been wetter, there has been no evidence of the large fluctuations seen during much of the 20thC. The PDSI shows a similar picture for drought.

 

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/temp-and-precip/time-series/index.php?parameter=pdsi&month=12&year=2012&filter=12&state=21&div=0

 

As for summer temperatures, both 1933 and 1936 were warmer than last year, although by far the warmest summer was in 1988. The long term trend seems to be back to that of the 1930’s.

 

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/temp-and-precip/time-series/index.php?parameter=tmp&month=8&year=2012&filter=3&state=21&div=0

 

 

Drought in 1829

Judging by the historical records, droughts during the 1820’s were every bit as bad as the 1930’s. According to ClimateStations.com,

 

Drought predominated 1829’s weather at Fort Snelling, earning the year a place in the early Minnesota history texts along with 1820, 1822, and 1826. According to Neill [1881], winter, spring, and summer were all "very dry … one inch was the average fall of rain or snow for ten months" with "vegetation more backward than it had been for ten years". May and June combined had only eight rain-days, and a low Mississippi all the way down to at least St. Louis severely hindered the upriver transport of supplies during the summer. Like so many drought years, extremes in temperature, both cold and warm, were experienced. February brought severe cold, late-May and early-June, however, providing unseasonably early intense heat. October and December equalled and exceeded, respectively, the eleven-year marks for high average temperature. November, in contrast, was the coldest month of its name so far in Post history. Annual mean temperature for the year was 44 F.

 

Drought? Extremes of hot and cold? Why did not  Andrew Jackson think to bring in a Carbon Tax?