Posted on 09/21/2021 10:30:32 PM PDT by Libloather
LOS ANGELES, Sept 21 (Reuters) - Human-caused climate change has intensified the withering drought gripping the Southwestern United States, the region's most severe on record, with precipitation at the lowest 20-month level documented since 1895, a U.S. government report said on Tuesday.
Over the same period, from January 2020 through August 2021, the region also experienced the third-highest daily average temperatures measured since record-keeping began near the end of the 19th century, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) drought task force.
The study warned that extreme drought conditions are likely to worsen and repeat themselves "until stringent climate mitigation is pursued and regional warming trends are reversed."
The drought emerged in early 2020 in California, Nevada and the "Four Corners" states of Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico and has led to unprecedented water shortages in reservoirs across the region, while fueling devastating western wildfires over the past two years, the report noted.
The study also cited dwindling reservoir levels that have threatened or disrupted drinking supplies, irrigation systems, hydropower generation, fishing and recreational activities, with immediate economic losses in the billions of dollars.
Much of the record below-normal wintertime precipitation was likely due to natural weather variations, including a La Nina pattern, while research suggests that successive summers of scant monsoonal rainfall may also occur by chance, the NOAA report said.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
Well on the bright side land in New Mexico and Arizona is going for cheap prices. And if you know how to transform the land from arid desert to lush green vegetation you will be doing fine. And before you say it cannot be done because “science”, how do you explain Israel? Or other swaths of desert turned into rich oasis?
It takes time effort and yes water but the local governments would rather see the water evaporate than be put to good use. Some western and south western states have regulated rain water and have either made rain catchment systems illegal or have attached water rights and water storage rights to the rain.
And California is not being exported to neighboring states! BAH! Quit dumping fresh water into the ocean!
“I find it hard to believe we’re still in a drought after the torrential rainfall we had.”
It’s proven science that warming causes cooling so it should not be hard to believe that rainfall causes drought. In your case torrential rain causes torrential drought.
As an aside, I will be retiring shortly. Knowing I need to only plan for 9.34 years will certainly help with that planning.
So California refusing to build adequate reservoirs for the last 20 years is global warming? Or draining water from existing reservoirs? Oh, that’s right, they spent their money on a bullet train to nowhere. F them.
If we can pipe oil from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, why couldn’t we build pipelines from habitually flooded areas to places that are habitually dry ?
Don’t forget: humans and fossil-fuel consumption are major causes of ‘global-warming.,’ What this really means is goddess Gaia is angry and requires massive human sacrifice.
If it’s the worst in a century that means it was worse more than a century ago when hardly any co2 was produced by humans.
Notice that neither Obama nor any of the Hollywood hypocrites are rushing to sell their beachfront mansions.
Tucson has had historic amounts of rain these past few months.
***Human-caused climate change has intensified the withering drought gripping the Southwestern United States, the region’s most severe on record,***
Really? Is it worse than the 24 year drought (1276-1300 AD) that drove the Chaco and Mesa Verde tribes out of the 4-Corners area?
Is it worse than the 1831 drought that in May, dried up all the water holes on the Santa Fe Trail?
Worse than the 1834 drought and sickness that killed so many Dragoons on Catlin’s expedition to the Comanches? The eldest tribesmen said they could not remember a dry time so bad in their lifetime.
Worse than the Dust Bowl? 1930-1939 My kin lived through that one!
Inquiring Minds want to know! Did “WE” cause all those dry periods, and can they prove it!
I remember some brutal hot summers in the 1970s during the COMING ICE AGE scare. The Fall and Winter of 1976-1977 was extremely bad!
But today such hot summers are used as “Proof” of glo-bull warming.
Obama’s mansion is only three feet above sea level at High Tide. If he is not worried about glo-bul warming why should we!
But then I am 1234 feet above sea level. Wish I was back at 5280 ft above as I used to be.
I was born and raised part of my young life in NE New Mexico. It was a drought that drove us out in 1952 when I was 5 years old. I remember it well.
On all my trips back to visit kin there it was always dry as a bone.
In 2013 we drove through there, and for the first time in my life I saw the area GREEN! I could not believe it!
In 2015 we made our last trip through there and it was still GREEN! Roads washed out, and we followed a big thunderstorm into Oklahoma.
If it had been that green in 1952 dad might have stayed.
***Some western and south western states ..... have attached water rights and water storage rights to the rain.***
Colorado is that way. That is why you can buy 40 acres of prairie rather cheap as the water rights from rain and snow are owned by Kansas.
Coloradoans in SE Colorado are required allow the rain and snow melt to run into rivers then into Kansas for this reason.
My native grass is about 3.5 feet high, and I have wildflowers (some are types I’ve never seen before) that are reaching 5 feet high. There is a sunflower near the house with the blossom about a foot in diameter... I’ve never seen one that big in NM.
I take it back... I just went out and measured it... the flower is closer to 15 inches diameter.
¡Sí! En el desierto polvoriento, siempre más cerveza, para siempre ...
( por favor perdona mi mal español, solo Dios sabe cuantas cervezas tomé anoche ... )
This “9.34 years left” mantra has me in a pickle. I’ve been meaning to go through my house and do a deep purge but then I ask myself, “Self, why waste precious time?”
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