Precipitation Deficit Tool Available

Jul 13, 2017

By Christopher Graham

As of July 5, roughly 90% of the state is experiencing some degree of drought. Much of Central and Western South Dakota is listed in Moderate to Severe Drought, with the North Central part of the state affected hardest.

Drought Termination & Amelioration Tool
While ‘moderate’ and ‘severe’ convey some sense of severity, they are qualitative descriptors that still leave many wondering what exactly they mean in any practical sense. One tool to make these categories a bit more tangible is the Drought Termination and Amelioration Application developed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Estimating precipitation needed to end drought.
This tool provides the amount of precipitation needed to end the drought in one month. The application tends to aggregate over a larger area, which misses some of the nuanced weather extremes experienced by local conditions. Nonetheless, it offers a sense of how unusual the current precipitation trends are compared to long-term averages. For example, currently most of Central and Western South Dakota would need over 6 inches of rain to fall in the next month to alleviate drought conditions. To put this into perspective, the North-Central region has received over 6 inches of rainfall in July just once (1993) in the last 120 years.

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Video: Designing a Robotic Berry Picker

Since blackberries must be harvested by hand, the process is time-consuming and labor-intensive. To support a growing blackberry industry in Arkansas, food science associate professor Renee Threlfall is collaborating with mechanical engineering assistant professor Anthony Gunderman to develop a mechanical harvesting system. Most recently, the team designed a device to measure the force needed to pick a blackberry without damaging it. The data from this device will help inform the next stage of development and move the team closer to the goal of a fully autonomous robotic berry picker. The device was developed by Gunderman, with Yue Chen, a former U of A professor now at Georgia Tech, and Jeremy Collins, then a U of A undergraduate engineering student. To determine the force needed to pick blackberries without damage, the engineers worked with Threlfall and Andrea Myers, then a graduate student.