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Extreme Heat, Drought Will Permanently Scar California and Its Social Fabric

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Hayley Smith

Unprecedented dryness across the western United States is meeting with increasingly warm temperatures to create climate conditions so extreme that the landscape of California could permanently and profoundly change, a growing number of scientists say.

The Golden State’s great drying has already begun to reduce snowpack, worsen wildfires and dry out soils, and researchers say that trend will likely continue, along with the widespread loss of trees and other significant shifts.

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Tear Out Your Lawn, Check. Drought-Tolerant Plants, Check. Next Up: Recycled Water

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Jeanette Marantos

Tearing out our lawns is a good start toward wiser water use in Southern California, but it’s not enough.

To do the job properly, we must also be ready to collect the rain that will someday fall out of the sky, advocates say. And these people have a vision that not only stores increasingly precious rainwater, but puts it to use for everything from drip irrigation to aquaculture to waterfalls surrounded by lush plantings and the soothing music of running (albeit recycled) water.

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Colorado, Utah and Wyoming Could Be as Dry as Arizona in the Future, Study Says

/in , , /by /KJZZby Alex Hager

A new study finds that the upper Colorado River basin is drying out due to climate change. This means in the future, parts of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming could more closely resemble Arizona and the desert Southwest.

Research from the Los Alamos National Laboratory predicts that mountain snow will start melting and running into streams and reservoirs much earlier.

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Amid Severe Drought, Former Interior Secretary Calls for Revamping Colorado River Pact

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Ian James

One hundred years after a landmark agreement divided the waters of the Colorado River among Western states, the pact is now showing its age as a hotter and drier climate has shrunk the river.

The flow of the Colorado has declined nearly 20% since 2000. Reservoirs have dropped to record low levels.

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Scientists See Silver Lining in Fed’s Efforts at Lake Powell

/in , , /by /AP Newsby Joan Meiners

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation announced last week that it plans to adjust management protocols for the Colorado River in early 2022 to reduce monthly releases from Lake Powell in an effort to keep the reservoir from dropping farther below 2021′s historic lows.

As of Jan. 6, the nation’s second-largest reservoir — part of a Colorado River system that provides drinking water to approximately 40 million people throughout the West — sat at an elevation of 3,536 feet, the Spectrum reported.

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Drought-Stricken Colorado River Basin Could See Additional 20% Drop in Water Flow by 2050

/in , , /by /Yale Climate Connectionsby Jan Ellen Spiegel

Colorado is no stranger to drought. The current one is closing in on 20 years, and a rainy or snowy season here and there won’t change the trajectory. This is what climate change has brought. “Aridification” is what Bradley Udall formally calls the situation in the western U.S. But perhaps more accurately, he calls it hot drought – heat-induced lack of water due to climate change. That was the core of research released in 2017 by Udall, a senior climate and water scientist at Colorado State University’s Colorado Water Center, and Jonathan Overpeck at the University of Michigan.

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If Aridification Choked the Southwest for Thousands of Years, What Does The Future Hold?

/in , /by /Inside Climate Newsby Judy Fahys

The ancient people of Danger Cave lived well. They ate freshwater fish, ducks and other small game, according to detritus they left behind. They had a lush lakeside view, with cattails, bulrush and water-loving willows adorning the marshlands.

But then, the good life became history. As heat and drought set in, the freshwater dried up and forced the ancients to survive by plucking tiny seeds from desert shrubs called pickleweed. Archaeologists know this from a thick layer of dusty chaff buried in the cave’s floor.

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