Jet Stream Trough Brings Endless Rain, Now Locusts; Grim Grain Outlook For Russia, Ukraine

[hatrack]

This year was supposed to set new records for Russian grain production. But that was before a persistent trough in the Jet Stream funneled storm after storm over the Ukraine through Western and Central Russia setting off record extreme rainfall events. Before a swarm of locusts invading further north earlier than is typical ravaged over 170,000 ares of corn in Southern Russia. Now the combined insect plague and stormy weather has put cereal crops at risk of shortfalls.

For Western and Central Russia, May was a terrible month for planting season. Warming in the Arctic aided in the generation of numerous high amplitude Jet Stream waves. These waves, in turn, generated a deep trough zone over Central and Western Russia. As with many recent climate change related weather features, the trough stuck around. And a series of seemingly endless ending storms dumped between 2 and 6 times the normal amount of rainfall over Russia’s most productive growing zone.

The rains prevented or slowed the rate of seed planting. For Central Russia, planting all but halted. Now some estimates are hinting that Russia may miss its record grain harvest target. Andrey Sizov Jr., managing director at consultant SovEcon in Moscow stated to AGWeb today that: “There’s too much rain. Planting all but stopped in the center. If rains continue, there will be no record” grain crop.

(A massive locust swarm blackens the skies over Southern Russia. The early swarm is already reported to have devoured a big portion of the region’s corn crop — prompting officials there to declare a state of emergency.)

New doubts over Russia’s grain harvest also emerged after media reports indicated that 10 percent or 170,000 ares of Southern Russia’s corn crop was destroyed by a massive swarm of locusts during late May and early June. The swarm is part of an annual arrival of the insects from North Africa. But this year, warmer than normal weather conditions — enhanced by the hot air dredged up ahead of the rainy trough to the north — are thought to have spurred breeding, swelled the size of the swarm, and aided in its early arrival.

Last year, a voracious locust swarm also devoured a significant portion of Southern Russia’s crops during mid to late summer. Sadly, the swarm this year has likely only just gotten started — meaning that with most of summer ahead, there’s a risk that the swarm will continue to expand for weeks or even months.

EDIT

https://robertscribbler.com/2016/06/02/the-rains-of-climate-change-voracious-locust-swarms-wreck-crops-in-russia/#comments

[haikugal]

1. Thanks hatrack I hadn't heard about this. It's begun.... K&R and bookmarked!

[NickB79]

2. Russia is a hotbed of GW denier bullshit

http://grist.org/article/russia-takes-a-skeptical-approach-to-climate-change-thanks-to-putin/

Russia’s official view appears to have changed little since 2003, when Putin told an international climate conference that warmer temperatures would mean Russians “spend less on fur coats” while “agricultural specialists say our grain production will increase, and thank God for that.”

The president believes that “there is no global warming, that this is a fraud to restrain the industrial development of several countries including Russia,” says Stanislav Belkovsky, a political analyst and critic of Putin. “That is why this subject is not topical for the majority of the Russian mass media and society in general.”

Fuck em. Let them eat mud.