Warming Boosting Decades-Long Droughts In West (As In Right Now); AZ Fastest-Growing State

[hatrack]

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By the numbers: According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, nearly 40% of the West is currently in a state of extreme or exceptional drought, the two most severe categories, and barely 10% of the region is altogether drought-free. The current drought began last year, which was the driest on record for Utah and Nevada, and among the driest for states like Colorado.

"By intensity, it would be about as bad as the U.S. Drought Monitor has shown in the last 20 years," climatologist Brian Fuchs of the National Drought Mitigation Center told USA Today recently. And conditions aren't likely to improve in the near future given the ongoing contributions of climate change. NOAA's most recent Seasonal Drought Outlook predicts persistent dryness west of the Rockies, save for the Pacific Northwest, with drought affecting 74 million Americans.

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The big picture: The American West has a long history of recurring megadroughts that dates back to well before humans started putting carbon into the atmosphere. A study published last year used moisture-sensitive tree-ring chronologies to find evidence — backed by historical documents of the era — of a multidecadal megadrought in the U.S. Southwest during the 16th century.

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Even as the West is becoming drier, people are still flocking to the region — every decade between 1950 and 2010, population growth in the Desert Southwest was at least triple the overall U.S. rate. Arizona — which averages 13 inches of precipitation annually, compared to 38 inches for the U.S. as a whole — currently has the highest population growth rate in the country.

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https://www.axios.com/megadrought-us-west-climate-change-b2617911-cd18-4869-8dea-b39143ccf911.html

[paleotn]

1. I've never understood the draw of Phoenix.

Beautiful place, the valley of the sun, but it's a veritable desert. 4.5M people in the MSA and growing by leaps and bounds. Who thought it would be a good idea to build a huge city where water is tight even in good years? What am I missing?

[mountain grammy]

2. December, January and February

[paleotn]

3. Granted. I might freeze to death in those months,

but I'll never die of thirst or heat stroke in the summer.