Tag Archive for: Drought

Complex Dynamics of Water Shortages Highlighted in Study

/in , , /by /Cornell Chronicleby Syl Kacapyr

Within the Colorado River basin, management laws dictate how water is allocated to farms, businesses and homes. Those laws, along with changing climate patterns and demand for water, form a complex dynamic that has made it difficult to predict who will be hardest hit by drought.

Cornell engineers have used advanced modeling to simulate more than 1 million potential futures – a technique known as scenario discovery – to assess how stakeholders who rely on the Colorado River might be uniquely affected by changes in climate and demand as a result of management practices and other factors.

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Looming Drought Concerns Arizona Water Group

/in , , /by /Western FarmPressby Lee Allen
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Opinion: Forests Can Help Boost California’s Economic Recovery

/in , , /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Laurie Wayburn

As California begins its recovery from the COVID-19 crisis, the Legislature has a short window to simultaneously address both our current economic losses and ongoing climate challenges. Although these remain unprecedented times, it is also an opportunity to envision a better future and a different way of doing things, particularly regarding fire, drought, water reliability, forest health and how these are entwined with our economic recovery.

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Opinion: Here’s How Less than 10% of Farmland Could Solve the Colorado River’s Water Deficit

/in , , /by /Arizona Centralby Bruce Babbitt

It is no exaggeration to say that a mega-drought not seen in 500 years has descended on the seven Colorado River Basin states: Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona and California. That’s what the science shows, and that’s what the region faces.

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Megadrought ‘Unprecedented In Human History’ Likely the New Normal Across the West

/in , , /by /CBS News San Franciscoby John Blackstone

Come spring, the American West’s vast water reservoirs are supposed to fill with melting snow. However this year, as in recent years, the large reservoirs of Lake Mead and Lake Powell in the Colorado River basin have seen declining water levels — an ominous trend that a new study warns could signal a looming megadrought.

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California’s Mountain Snow Cover is Vanishing a Month Early, in a Worrying Setup for Fire Season

/in , , /by /The Washington Postby Diana Leonard

On Monday, California fire officials gathered to launch the state’s annual Wildfire Preparedness Week. The message they delivered was clear: Summer 2020 would not mimic summer 2019, when wildfires mostly remained small and manageable into August.

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Supercharged by Climate Change, ‘Megadrought’ Points to Drier Future in the West

/in , /by /AZ Centralby Ian James

Since 2000, the West has been stricken by a dry spell so severe that it ranks among the biggest “megadroughts” of the past 1,200 years. But scientists have found that unlike the decades-long droughts of centuries ago, this one has been supercharged by humanity’s heating of the planet.

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Expected Spring Runoff into Colorado River Plunges After Dry April

/in , , /by /Tucson.comby Mark Henle

A dry April caused the expected spring-summer runoff into Lake Powell to plunge dramatically, with the water-flow forecast down the Colorado River declining as much in one month as Tucson Water customers use in 10 years.

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Opinion: Now, More Than Ever, We Need Tribes at the Water Negotiating Table

/in , , /by /AZ Centralby Dennis Patch, Ted Kowalski

A study recently published in the journal Science found that global warming and climate change have led to an emerging “megadrought” in the western U.S. – and that the drought we’ve been experiencing over the last 20 years is as bad or worse than any in 1,200 years.

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Drought Makes Early Start of the Fire Season Likely in Northern California

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Paul Duginski

Expanding and intensifying drought in Northern California portends an early start to the wildfire season, and the National Interagency Fire Center is predicting above-normal potential for large wildfires by midsummer.

Mountain snowpack has been below average across the High Sierra, southern Cascades and the Great Basin, and the agency warns that these areas need to be monitored closely as fuels continue to dry out. The agency also cites a warm, dry pattern in Oregon and central and eastern Washington, and assigns all of these areas a higher-than-average likelihood of wildfires in July.

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