Western US May Be Experiencing Its Worst Dry Spell in 12 Centuries – Mother Jones

Lake Powell, pictured in Wahweap (Arizona), is currently at a record low of 24 percent.Luna Anna Archey/High Country News

This story was first published by High Country News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.

Across the WestState leaders are preparing for the long-term effects of aridification. In late April, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown Additional four additional counties to the ‘drought emergency’ tally—now, half the state is in a state of emergency. Further south, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which supplies water to millions of city dwellers in Southern California, has restricted outdoor water usage For the first time ever. In Colorado, the US Department of Agriculture designated the entire state a “primary natural disaster area” due to the threat of drought—also considered an ‘unprecedented’ move. The Southwest has been hard hit by dry conditions. New Mexico and Utah issued separate emergency declarations. Water scarcity and the other for Wildfire.

The political designations allow states and counties to access resources and increase their power to deal with extreme water scarcity. This makes it possible for them to provide relief aid for the agricultural industry. Westerners will undoubtedly need it this summer, and—as the drought likely continues—future summers.

Shrinking snowpacks, parched topsoil and depleted reservoirs are symptoms of the West’s longest continuous streakSince 800 AD, there have been dry years. It is possible that the streak will continue. A study Published in Nature Climate Change in February predicted a 94 percent chance the drought stretches through 2023; the chances of it persisting through 2030 are 75 percent, when factoringIn continued impacts of a warming climate.

According to the US Drought Monitor, most of the West is in “moderate” to “severe drought.” Certain regions, like eastern and southwestern Oregon, California’s Central Valley, southern Nevada and eastern New Mexico are in “extreme” to “exceptional” drought.  

These are some numbers and notable coverage that will help you understand how drought is affecting the West. 

THE SOUTHWEST

• Lake Powell and Lake Mead, the nation’s largest reservoirs, are at record lows—24% and 31%, respectively.. Powell’s stored supplies Have dropped to just about 5 million acre-feet, triggering emergency releases to stymie dropping levels. The lake can hold 26 million acres.
• Cities, from San Diego to Las Vegas, are adapting with programs like “cash-for-grass” and water recycling, according to reporting from Yale Environment 360.
• 98% of the Southwest This week is in droughtAccording to the US Drought Monitor, this is the case.
• According to NASA Earth ObservatoryResearchers are seeing severe low-snow conditions and low-runoff conditions throughout the region. Their modeling shows that snowpack in the Upper Colorado Basin has peaked about a month earlier than usual.

THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST

• According to Oregon’s Fifth Climate Assessment, the state’s annual average temperature has warmed by about 2.2 F per century since 1895. More than a third, on averageSince 2000, the area has been in drought.
• Idaho’s water resource department reports that 58 percent of the state is currently experiencing drought conditions ranging from moderate to extreme. The state’s water resource department issued an emergency drought declaration in 34 out of its 44 counties in April.
• Glaciers in Washington’s Olympic National Park could be gone by 2070According to a new study, the impacted on a significant source of summer water. Journal of Geophysical Research on Earth Surface. 

CALIFORNIA

• Urban water use in the state rose to Nearly 19%March. The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California has ordered outdoor watering once per week for six million people in Southern California this summer.
• Water for sale $2,000 per acre foot For the first time ever.
• The drought will continue into 2021. Cost thousands of jobs, and more than $1B in the San Joaquin Valley; hundreds of wells have gone dry and more are accepted to Dry up this year.
• California’s largest reservoirs, Lake Shasta and Lake Oroville, are at “critically” low levels.