July driest month in many years for parts of Phillips County

The month of July in Phillips County started with a fire in the Zortman and Landusky areas that ended up burning over 11 thousands acres and ended with a small reprieve from extreme heats and a little bit of rain. In-between, folks in Phillips County suffered during one of the driest months in recent memory, a number of smaller fires and extreme heats.

Phillips County Volunteer Fire fighter Greg Kelsey told the PCN that local volunteer fire crews responded to at least 10 fires since the July Fire erupted (and had fire fighters at the July Fire at many times to make sure no structures caught fire.) Kelsey said that many of the smaller fires in the county were near the highway, three fires in one day as a vehicle hauling a trailer was shooting sparks into dead grass and starting small fires. Kelsey, who has been a volunteer fire fighter for 21 years, said that this July is as bad as he has seen as far as the lack of moisture.

"It is the driest I have seen, but we haven't had as many fire because the public is very conscientious of the dryness," he said. "But I would say this is probably one of the worst droughts since 1988."

Theodore Jambe of NOAA Federal told the PCN that the normal amount of rain in July for Malta is 1.67 and so far, Malta has received just 1.67 inches. In Saco, the normal precipitation for July is 1.53 inches and this July, Saco received just .41 inches. In Zortman, normal July rainfall is 2.35, but only .67 in July; Port of Morgan normally gets 1.92 but has received just 1.31 inches of precipitation. (Whitewater normally receives 1.35 inches and Dodson, 1.22, but neither had reported their totals as of August 3.)

Jambe said that Saco has been reporting precipitation since 1966 and as of July 26 of this year, 2017 marks the driest year so far with just 2.80 inches of rain through the first seven months (2005, which had 32 days missing from the reports, only had 2.94 inches of rain at the same point; 1967 had 3.94 inches and 1984 saw just 4.10 inches.)

"Malta 7E" has been reporting rain totals since 1972 and as of July 26 of this year, 2017 has thus far been the driest on record with 3.52 inches (though 26 have not been reported.) 1984 saw 4.56 inches as of the same date in July; 1985 saw 4.94 and 2012 (missing 55 days of reports) saw 5.07 inches or precipitation.

Through July 31, Malta is down 3.76 inches of precipitation compared to normal years; Saco is down 5.04; Zortman is down 5.42 and Port of Morgan is down 5.14 (Whitewater and Dodson had not reported this year's numbers as of July 31.)

On July 26 and 27, Russell Snedigar of the Farm Service Agency held two (of the same) Livestock Forage Disaster Program (LFP) Meetings at Malta High School.

As of July 6, Phillips County had met the extreme drought criteria for LFP and applications are required for farmers and ranchers for 2017 losses.

At the July 26 and 27 meetings, a total of 104 producers attended the events.

On August 3, Snedigar told the PCN that his office had accepted at least 60 applications for LFP and he has heard good things about the meetings.

"Producers who attended the meeting thought it was a beneficial, educational experience. The meeting went well and we received some good questions," he said.

"In Phillips County, we administer approximately 491 farms. It seems like every farm and ranch is feeling the squeeze of the drought. Livestock producers are short on pasture and winter feed. Farmers are looking at reduced yields in their small grain crops."

The LFP application and supporting documentation for 2017 losses must be submitted by January 30, 2018; however, 2017 acreage reports are required to be filed for all eligible land no later than the final reporting date of November 15, 2017. Acreage reports filed after that date will not be accepted which will result in ineligibility for the 2017 LFP program. Required supporting documents may include information related to grazing leases or federal grazing permits, contract grower agreements, documentation to support livestock inventory and more.

As of the morning of Tuesday, August 8, weather predictions there are very small amounts of precipitation in the next 10 days with a 10-percent chance this Wednesday, a 20-percent chance next Wednesday and then another 10-percent chance on next Thursday.