Measuring soil moisture contributes to predicting drought impacts
Stillwater County was hit hard. At the beginning of the drought, the Stillwater County Drought Advisory Board was asked what could be done to help. Their response was disaster declarations which mainly considered rainfall, streamflow, and storage, but did not accurately reflect drought conditions because effective soil moisture was not being measured. This input led to the installation of soil moisture sensors to provide information to help make better drought disaster determinations. Stillwater County joined other drought-stricken counties in 2002, and the Montana Counties Soil Climate Network (MCSCN) was formed. Over 60 stations were installed across the state and data made accessible. However, this effort was not sustainable due to lack of a statewide system for maintenance and support. Most of the stations are now defunct or inoperable. A new local program was initiated by Stillwater County MSU Extension with support of the MSU Extension Climate Science team. Ten stations with improved, updated technology, measuring current weather conditions, as well as soil moisture and temperature at four depths, have been installed in Stillwater and four surrounding counties. These were made possible by collaborations with county commissioners, Extension agents, conservation 10
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districts, local landowners, a Western Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (WSARE) Grant and the Montana Mesonet. While perseverance at the local level has been important, the project would not have been possible or sustainable without the Montana Mesonet. Stillwater County was excited to join the recently formed Montana Mesonet, a cooperative, statewide soil moisture and meteorological information network, coordinated by the Montana Climate Office (http://climate.umt.edu/mesonet/default.php ) that originated with the Montana Research and Economic Development Initiative. The Mesonet has formed partnerships with the Institute on Ecosystems, Bureau of Land Management, Montana Department of Agriculture, MSU Extension, MSU Agricultural Experiment Stations, Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology, Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and other watershed groups. These partnerships will ensure the sustainability and expansion of the 56 monitoring stations currently installed across the state. During the next few years, the Montana Climate Office will be developing user-guided applications and web-interface tools that use soil moisture and weather information to help farmers, ranchers, and other resource managers make critical decisions. In fact, Montana’s first early drought warning tool that integrates sensor outputs and site-specific soil moisture measurements was released in November 2018 (http://climate.umt.edu/mesonet/). This monitoring system will provide reliable information on remaining reserves of plant-available water, enabling resource managers to adapt management strategies. Knowing early that plant-available water is approaching critical minimum values, ranchers could make early arrangements to purchase hay or move or sell cattle early, when prices are more favorable. Further, government agencies can gain a clearer picture of drought effects in the state to target relief efforts more effectively and refine maps to determine drought status. Any efficiency increase from more accurate weather and soil moisture information can translate into several million dollars in statewide savings each year. Today it is much more widely-accepted that cumulative rainfall data alone is a poor predictor
KEVIN HYDE, MT CLIMATE OFFICE, MT MESONET COORDINATOR
Hurricanes, tornadoes and floods can be sudden and violent, causing a massive amount of damage. Drought, although less dramatic, is longer lasting, causes even more damage and has similar costs over a long period. Montana suffered a long drought from 1997 to 2006. The effects of this drought and more recent shorter duration droughts have had an enormous impact on the state of Montana, its farmers and ranchers, and the overall economy.
