Oct 16, 5:36 PM EDT
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NCDC: Drought Spread Through US in Sept.*

By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID
AP Science Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Confirming what many farmers, boaters and others
already knew, the government reported Tuesday that the drought parching
much of the West and Southeast spread into the Mid-Atlantic area in
September.

At the end of the month, about 43 percent of the contiguous United
States was in moderate to extreme drought, the National Climate Data
Center said Tuesday.

Worldwide, meanwhile, the agency said the year to date has been the
warmest on record for land. It has been the seventh warmest year so far
over the oceans, working out to the fourth warmest overall worldwide.
But drought is probably the greatest concern in many parts of the
country and the year to date has been the driest on record for Tennessee
and North Carolina.

The eastern seaboard from Maine to the Carolinas and across parts of
Florida was unusually dry in September, NCDC said. And the September
dryness extended across the Ohio Valley and into the southern Great Lakes.

The agency, a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration, said drier-than-normal weather was also experienced in
September across parts of the Pacific Northwest and northern Plains.

Drought-related conditions included:

-As of Sept. 25, Pasadena, Calif., experienced its driest year since
records began in 1878. Many California communities imposed water use
restrictions.

-The Great Lakes, which together make up about 20 percent of the world's
fresh surface water, have been in decline since the late 1990s. Lakes
Huron and Michigan were about 2 feet below their long-term average
levels, while Lake Superior was about 20 inches off, Lake Ontario 7
inches below and Lake Erie a few inches down.

-Maryland and Pennsylvania had about half of their counties under a
drought watch. Many areas in upstate New York reported record low
reservoir levels and dried-up wells and farm ponds.

-Alabama Power, the state's largest utility, has been operating some of
its coal plants at significantly reduced levels to avoid raising water
temperatures in the Coosa, Black Warrior and Mobile rivers.

-The Tennessee Valley Authority shut down Brown's Ferry Number 2 nuclear
power plant due to inadequate streamflow.

-At the end of September, the Georgia Environmental Protection Division
declared a level four drought response across the northern third of the
state, which prohibits most types of outdoor residential water use.

The report said that while September was only the eighth warmest month
on record for the United States, that was still hot enough to break
1,000 daily high records across the country.

With the worldwide warming, the extent of Arctic Sea ice reached its
lowest amount in September since satellite measurements began in 1979,
shattering the previous record low set in 2005.

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