The good storms

Press, 25 February 1978, Page 16

The good storms

Ry

WARREN LEARY,

of Associated Press

Recent severe storms throughout the world, including those in the United States, Asia, and Europe, probably have helped more than hurt agriculture, according to a United States Government report. Storms that struck the world’s agricultural areas recharged soil moisture supplies depleted by last year’s unusual dryness in many regions, said the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The . N.O.A.A. reports, issued periodically as part of an effort to assess the impact of weather on world food supplies, are based on earth satellite data and reports from ground observers and agencies of numerous governments. N.O.A.A. part of the United States Commerce Department, said weather systems moving across the United States resulted in intense storms in the east. But these systems dumped needed moisture on winter wheat fields in the southern plains. Recent rain and snow checked a worsening dry spell, begun last fall, that had stunned non-irrigated wheat in Texas, Colorado,

western Oklahoma, and western Kansas. In China and India, countries which had serious rainfall deficiencies last year at this time, moisture conditions in wheat regions are ex-

cellent because of recent storms, the report says. The Soviet Union, the eastern Ukraine wheat region came through an entire week of blizzard conditions. Though the wind and snow made life miserable for people, the moisture resulting from the storm should benefit winter grains, N.O.A.A. said. Autumn and w’inter precipitation has been favourable throughout the winter grain region, and also adequate across most of the Asiatic regions, where spring wheat will be planted in a few months. The report said winter grain outlooks had improved for Eastern Europe and the Northern African countries of Algeria and Tunisia. Both areas have been unusually dry this winter, but recent weather

changes are supplying needed moisture. The same weather systems that benefit these regions caused flooding and citrus crop damage in Mediterranean countries, which have had five severe storms in the last five weeks. In Australia, suffering with drought problems for a year, a late Januarv storm brought several inches of rain to southeastern sections, helping dry conditions in New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania. In South America, areas of Uruguay and adjacent northern Argentina received up to 10 inches of rain in two weeks. The report said this is likely to damage corn and other summer crops, but might benefit winter grains to be planted there in a few months. In Brazil, rainfall in the country’s important soybean growing state, Parana, has been below norma! since December, and some reduction in yield is expected. However, areas south of that region have reported considerablv greater rainfall in the last several weeks, and crop prospects have improved.