Better check the doorjamb weatherproofing and the window pane seals: All indications are that this summer will be dustier than usual.

Three years of drought have left fields throughout Kings County barren and dry, the soil just waiting for a strong wind to blow it into the air.

It's become such an issue that the United States Department of Agriculture is strongly advising farmers to either leave last year's stubble in the field, or, if some tillage has already taken place, to leave it in large clods that are more wind-resistant.

"They are correct that it is a major concern," said Sarah Woolf, spokeswoman for Westlands Water District.

An estimated two-thirds of the district's 600,000 acres, mostly in Fresno and Kings counties, are being left unplanted because of drought and endangered species issues in the Sacramento Delta.

Farmers aren't expecting to receive any deliveries from the federal Central Valley Project that normally gives them Northern California water passed through the Delta and pumped south.

That's left vast swaths of land subject to wind erosion, creating the perfect conditions for impaired visibility on roads and the loss of fertile topsoil.

"Fields continually subjected to erosion may result in land that is incapable of returning to cropping ... at a later date," said Rita Bickel, a USDA agronomist.

For many Westside farmers who already tilled their land in preparation for the next planting that never came, there's not much that can be done other than letting the weeds grow a little bit to hold the soil down.

Ted Sheely, who farms several thousands acres on Kings County's west side, said he never tilled some fields because he anticipated a water shortage. Those fields are now weed covered and full of stubble from last year's crop, and Sheely plans to leave them that way.

Other ground was tilled and prepared for cotton that Sheely never planted because of the water shortage. He'll let that ground stay in a rough-plowed state.

Visibility on area roads can be seriously affected by blowing dust.

One major dust storm in November 1991 caused a huge pileup on Interstate 5 north of Coalinga that killed 14 people. The situation was similar to this year.

Severe drought conditions had left huge swaths of farmland unplanted, a circumstance that helped trigger the massive dust cloud that plunged visibility to near zero in a matter of seconds.

Sheely said he hit zero visibility conditions Sunday on a section of the Avenal Cutoff Road when the wind kicked up.

"I don't think we have a good solution to it," Woolf said.

The reporter can be reached at 583-2432.

(March 31, 2009)