THE WEST
SATURDAY, MARCH 20, 2021
THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD — 3B
Federal officials predicting expanding drought
■ Weather Service warns of the possibility of water use cutbacks in California and the Southwest later this year
By Seth Borenstein
AP Science Writer
With nearly two-thirds of
the United States abnormally
dry or worse, the govern-
ment’s spring forecast offers
little hope for relief, especially
in the West where a devastat-
ing megadrought has taken
root and worsened.
Weather service and
agriculture offi cials warned of
possible water use cutbacks
in California and the South-
west, increased wildfi res, low
levels in key reservoirs such
has Lake Mead and Lake
Powell and damage to wheat
crops.
The National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administra-
tion’s offi cial spring outlook
Thursday, March 18 sees an
expanding drought with a
drier than normal April, May
and June for a large swath of
the country from Louisiana
to Oregon, including some
areas hardest hit by the most
severe drought. And nearly
all of the continental United
States is looking at a warmer
than normal spring, except
for tiny parts of the Pacifi c
Northwest and southeast
Alaska, which makes drought
worse.
“We are predicting pro-
longed and widespread
drought,” National Weather
Service Deputy Director
Mary Erickson said. “It’s
defi nitely something we’re
watching and (are) very con-
cerned about.”
NOAA expects the spring
drought to hit 74 million
people.
Several factors go into
worsening drought, the
agency said. A La Nina cool-
ing of parts of the central
Pacifi c continues to bring
dry weather for much of the
country, while in the South-
in extreme or exceptional
drought — all of it west of the
Mississippi River. Climate
scientists are calling what’s
happening in the West a
“megadrought” that started
in 1999.
“The nearly West-wide
drought is already quite
severe in its breadth and
intensity, and unfortunately
it doesn’t appear likely that
there will be much relief this
spring,” said UCLA climate
scientist Daniel Swain, who
writes the Weather West
blog and isn’t part of the
NOAA outlook. “Winter
precipitation has been much
below average across much
of California, and summer
precipitation reached record
low levels in 2020 across the
desert Southwest.”
Jayson Jacoby/Baker City Herald
With the Sierra Nevada
This drone photo from mid-January 2021 shows how much room there is for water to rise at Owyhee Reservoir, a
snowpack only 60% of nor-
major source of irrigation water for the Ontario area. As of Friday, March 19, the reservoir was at 54% of capacity.
mal levels, U.S. Department
of Agriculture meteorologist
Brad Rippey said “there
“We are predicting
will be some water cutbacks
prolonged and
and allocation cutbacks in
California and perhaps other
widespread drought. It’s
defi nitely something we’re areas of the Southwest” for
agriculture and other uses.
watching and (are) very It will probably hit nut crops
in the Golden State.
concerned about.”
Winter and spring wheat
— Mary Erickson, deputy
crops
also have been hit
director, National Weather
hard
by
the western drought
Service
with 78% of the spring
wheat production area in
an abnormally dry condition, drought conditions, Rippey
the highest mid-March level said.
since 2002. And forecasters
Dry, warm conditions in
predict that will worsen,
the upcoming months likely
expanding in parts of Florida, will bring “an enhanced
Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas,
wildfi re season,” said Jon
Nebraska, Colorado, Wyo-
Gottschalck, chief of NOAA’s
ming and South Dakota, with prediction branch.
small islands of relief in parts
Swain of UCLA said the
of the Great Lakes and New wildfi res probably will not
England.
be as bad as 2020 because so
west heavy summer monsoon California megadrought is
Thursday’s national
More than 44% of the na-
much vegetation burned last
rains failed to materialize.
associated with long-term
Drought Monitor shows
tion is in moderate or worse
year and drought conditions
Meteorologists also say the
climate change.
almost 66% of the nation is in drought, and nearly 18% is
retarded regrowth.
Idaho could lift mask mandate as 4th lawmaker infected
By Keith Ridler
Associated Press
BOISE — A fourth law-
maker in the Idaho House of
Representatives has tested
positive for COVID-19 in less
than a week’s time and just
as the Legislature is debat-
ing a bill that would ban local
governments from requiring
that people wear masks.
The increasing number of
lawmakers out sick with the
coronavirus has legislative
leaders in the conservative
state worried they may not
be able to fi nish business in a
timely fashion.
“Of course I’m concerned,”
Republican House Speaker
Scott Bedke said Wednesday,
March 17, before the an-
nouncement of the fourth
COVID-19 diagnosis among
his colleagues.
Bedke wasn’t wearing a
face-covering but put one on
before getting in an eleva-
tor in the Statehouse. “We’re
re-emphasizing the safety
protocols. We also want to be
done by the end of the month.
I guess we’ll just see how it
goes,” he said.
A major goal of GOP law-
makers in the Legislature this
session has been curbing the
emergency powers of the Re-
publican governor to respond
to things like pandemics. Leg-
islators have fl oated several
proposals that would restrict
Gov. Brad Little’s ability to
make sweeping directives in
the future.
Republican Rep. Julie
Yamamoto said Thursday she
tested positive Wednesday
afternoon and immediately
left the Statehouse. She had
been on the House fl oor earlier
in the day without a mask as
lawmakers debated a huge
tax-cut bill.
All four lawmakers out with
the illness are Republicans
who rarely or never wear
masks.
“I actually feel fi ne,” Yama-
moto said. “The coughing is
the worst thing. And I was
doing that before with just the
asthma and allergies.”
She said a doctor told her
March 12 that the cough
was from seasonal allergies,
but she decided to get tested
anyway.
“As soon as I got the result,
I packed up and went home,”
she said.
She said she had been
persistently coughing during
the week but mostly isolated
in her offi ce at the Statehouse.
She said she never wears a
face-covering.
Republican Rep. Bruce
Skaug tested positive last
week. Republican Reps. Lance
Clow and Ryan Kerby tested
positive shortly after and
stopped going to the State-
house this week.
The fl urry of positive tests
comes as health offi cials in
southwestern Idaho are see-
ing an increasing number of
people infected with the highly
contagious variant of CO-
VID-19 fi rst identifi ed in the
United Kingdom.
Dr. David Peterman, a
pediatrician and CEO of Pri-
mary Health Medical Group,
said 30% of positive tests on
Wednesday at the health
group’s facilities in southwest-
ern Idaho were the variant.
“The variant is clearly in our
community and increasing,”
he said.
He said anyone working
at the Statehouse should be
wearing a mask.
Patie
nt Ho
using
Avail
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March is
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house more than 25,000 workers, Amazon
Care will include the in-person services that
Continued from Page 2B
are currently limited to Seattle.
In the Seattle area, it’s supplemented with
“Making this available to other employers
in-person services such as pharmacy delivery is a big step,” said Amazon Care Director Kris-
and house-call services from nurses who can
ten Helton in a phone interview. “It’s an oppor-
take blood work and provide similar services. tunity for other forward-thinking employers
On Wednesday, the tech giant announced
to offer a service that helps bring high-quality
it will immediately expand the service to
care, convenience and peace of mind.”
interested employers in Washington who want
Amazon launched the service 18 months
to purchase the service for their employees.
ago for its Washington state employees. Hel-
By the summer, Amazon Care will expand
ton said users have given it superior reviews,
nationally to all Amazon workers, and to pri- and business customers were inquiring about
vate employers across the country who want
being able to buy into the service for their own
to join.
workers.
In the Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and
Helton said the product is designed to be a
northern Virginia market, where Amazon
supplement or an additional benefi t to exist-
is building a second headquarters that will
ing coverage provided by an employer.
STROKES
Continued from Page 2B
Dr. Karen Joynt Maddox,
who was not involved in the
research, called the fi ndings
“alarming.”
“It’s a collective call to
action to really focus on
addressing risk factors for
stroke, as well as patient
education on the signs and
symptoms of stroke so they
can call 911 or get to the
hospital quickly when these
symptoms begin,” said Joynt
Maddox, an assistant profes-
sor at Washington Univer-
sity School of Medicine in St.
Louis and co-director of its
Center for Health Economics
and Policy.
Many strokes can be pre-
vented with proper manage-
ment of high blood pressure
and a type of irregular heart-
beat called atrial fi brillation,
she said.
Future studies need to
explore what’s driving the
uptick in rural stroke deaths,
Joynt Maddox said. “We
have to dig into the ‘why.’
Are stroke risk factors like
high blood pressure or atrial
fi brillation getting worse?
Is access to care … or social
determinants of health get-
ting worse? How might all
of these things differ by race
and ethnicity?
“Understanding which
factors are associated with
these fi ndings is the next step
toward identifying solutions.”
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