Wacky Weather Has Folks Wondering

They're praying for rain in the Midwest, which is suffering through its worst drought in 17 years.

But there's also been massive flooding in the Southwest, wildfires in the Northwest, extreme heat and humidity in the Northeast, and three powerful hurricanes.

What's up?

The lack of water is hitting the Midwest corn crop especially hard and, as Cynthia Bowers

The drought has left the river within two feet of it's all-time low.

Engineers have been dredging for weeks to keep St. Louis' harbor open, and barge operators have been lightening their loads to keep from running aground.

"We keep getting calls from the industry to different boats going up and down the river, telling us where they've rubbed or where they hit some shallow water," says dredge captain Terry Bequett.

It's particularly bad, says Bowers, in Cairo, Ill., near where the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers converge. Barges are stacked up, taking turns going through the now narrow channel.

A summer of endless sunshine has also dried up any hopes for the corn crop in Illinois and Missouri.

Showing Bowers a shriveled-up, crackling ear of corn, Missouri farmer Mike Henry says the corn is in such bad shape "strictly" from a lack of moisture.

By this time of year, Bowers notes, the corn stalks should be towering tall enough for a farmer to get lost in, but they're less than half that size.Says Henry: "Corn is usually 12 to 14 feet tall." But the stalks in his fields are five to six feet.

There is rain in the forecast, Bowers points out. But the question remains whether it will be enough to save farmers' other major crop, soybeans, or keep the river from running out.

Weather Channel meteorologist Mike Seidel to The Early Show co-anchor Hannah Storm Tuesday that it's been warmer than usual in most parts of the Northeast and Midatlantic, but that comes on the heels of two cooler-than-average summers. So, "When it gets up to around 100, it just feels worse."

That said, "We are seeing more extremes, and they're even more extreme than they were before. Global warming modelers plug in warmer temperatures down the road. And what we're seeing is, down the road, if we do keep getting warmer like we're seeing, we'll see more extreme weather.

"Here's a little statistic, too: Back in the 1800s, once every seven Julys, you had a 100-degree afternoon. Now, it's one day every four Julys you see 100 in New York."

Hurricane activity has been unusually brisk as well, with nine storms already, three of them hurricanes, Seidel points out. The average is 10 storms per season.

"The forecast from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is 18 to 21 storms, nine to 11 hurricanes. So we're expecting an above-average season."

That doesn't mean any of the storms will make landfall, Seidel adds, but "Sea surface temperatures are up. We're in a period of increased tropical activity."