More than 45 million people across 14 Southern states are now in the midst of what's being called a "flash drought" that's cracking farm soil, drying up ponds and raising the risk of wildfires, scientists said Thursday.
The weekly U.S. Drought Monitor report released Thursday shows extreme drought conditions in parts of Texas, Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, South Carolina and the Florida panhandle. Lesser drought conditions also have expanded in parts of Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi.
Overall, nearly 20 percent of the lower 48 U.S. states is experiencing drought conditions.
... The drought was affecting some water supplies across the region. Lake levels have been falling throughout Georgia, including at Lake Lanier, which provides much of Atlanta's drinking water. ...
*August rainfall was below average over much of New South Wales, southern Queensland, northern and eastern Victoria, South Australia, and northern Tasmania
*Rainfall deficiencies generally persist with little change in affected areas
*Long-term rainfall deficiencies, record-low for some periods, continue to severely limit water resources across the Murray–Darling Basin
*Root-zone soil moisture was below average for August for most of Australia
*Water storages in the Northern Murray–Darling Basin extremely low, with no meaningful inflows during August
*Below average winter filling season for water storages in the Southern Basin for the third year in a row
When compared to other 32-month periods commencing in January, the 32 months from January 2017 to August 2019 has been the driest on record averaged over the Murray–Darling Basin (34% below the 1961–1990 average), as well as over the northern Murray–Darling Basin (40% below average) and for the state of New South Wales (34% below average). All three regions have also been the driest on record for the 20 months from January 2018 to August 2019, whilst the 26 months from July 2017 to August 2019 rank second in all three regions; only the 1900–02 peak of the Federation Drought has been drier. The last 32 and 20 months have also been the driest on record averaged over the Border Rivers, Macquarie–Bogan, Namoi, Gwydir, and Castlereagh catchments, with the last 20 months also the driest on record for the Moonie, Condamine-Culgoa, and Lower Murray catchments.
“We have a fair bit of single-year drought resilience. No matter how severe it is, the cities and most of the [agriculture] zones won’t run out of water.”
The more immediate impacts of this trend will be on the ecosystem and the inevitable fire season, as California’s grasslands and forests continue to dry out.
October through May is Florida's normal dry season, but this year is drier than usual due to low rainfall and record-high temperatures.
jedrider wrote:While California had a March Miracle wet season, Florida seems to be in drought after this winter:
Florida Brush Fire Destroys at Least 100 Cars at Airport
https://weather.com/news/news/2020-04-04-florida-brush-fire-destroys-cars-at-airportOctober through May is Florida's normal dry season, but this year is drier than usual due to low rainfall and record-high temperatures.
So, rainfall amounts may register close to normal, but the extra warm temperatures still dry out the land. Same as is happening in California and the West, in general.
With the western United States and northern Mexico suffering an ever-lengthening string of dry years starting in 2000, scientists have been warning for some time that climate change may be pushing the region toward an extreme long-term drought worse than any in recorded history.
A new study says the time has arrived: a megadrought as bad or worse than anything even from known prehistory is very likely in progress, and warming climate is playing a key role.
The study, based on modern weather observations, 1,200 years of tree-ring data and dozens of climate models, appears this week in the leading journal Science.
... "We're no longer looking at projections, but at where we are now. We now have enough observations of current drought and tree-ring records of past drought to say that we're on the same trajectory as the worst prehistoric droughts."
Lamont climatologist Richard Seager was one of the first to predict, in a 2007 paper, that climate change might eventually push the region into a more arid climate during the 21st century; he speculated at the time that the process might already be underway. By 2015, when 11 of the past 14 years had seen drought, Benjamin Cook led a followup study projecting that warming climate would cause the catastrophic natural droughts of prehistory to be repeated by the latter 21st century. A 2016 study coauthored by several Lamont scientist reinforced those findings. Now, says Cook, it looks like they may have underestimated.
"It's already happening," he said.
Tucked into the researchers' data: the 20th century was the wettest century in the entire 1200-year record. It was during that time that population boomed, and that has continued.
"The 20th century gave us an overly optimistic view of how much water is potentially available," said Cook. "It goes to show that studies like this are not just about ancient history. They're about problems that are already here."
dohboi wrote:Since we're heading for (or are already in?) another great(-er?) depression, it seems only appropriate that we have a dust bowl to go along with it:
Climate-Driven Megadrought is Emerging in Western US, Study Says
dohboi wrote:Since we're heading for (or are already in?) another great(-er?) depression, it seems only appropriate that we have a dust bowl to go along with it:
Climate-Driven Megadrought is Emerging in Western US, Study Says
https://phys.org/news/2020-04-climate-d ... stern.html
EnergyUnlimited wrote:dohboi wrote:Since we're heading for (or are already in?) another great(-er?) depression, it seems only appropriate that we have a dust bowl to go along with it:
Climate-Driven Megadrought is Emerging in Western US, Study Says
https://phys.org/news/2020-04-climate-d ... stern.html
You really like to disseminate good news, don't you?
In the past I was in "save civilization" camp.
As time passes and I observe mindless environmental decisions, intellectual collapse of First World in general and clowns in politics I have firmly moved to the camp "screw it - not much is worth saving there anyway".
So lets the Rome burn.
I don't wish people bad but I genuinely believe that statistically they will benefit in medium to long term once our civilization, political and social structures and 99%+ of industry is gone and gone for good.
And a dieoff will benefit survivors too. Lets hope that there will be some of those.
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