Record 2020 Fire Seasons In CA, CO, Came W. 50% Of West In Drought; We're Now At 90% In Drought

[hatrack]

Lack of monsoon rainfall last summer and spotty snowfall this winter combined to worsen the Western drought dramatically in the past year, and spring snowmelt won’t bring much relief. Critical April 1 measurements of snow accumulations from mountain ranges across the region show that most streams and rivers will once again flow well below average levels this year, stressing ecosystems and farms and depleting key reservoirs that are already at dangerously low levels.

As the climate warms, it’s likely that drought conditions will worsen and persist across much of the West. Dry spells between downpours and blizzards are getting longer, and snowpack in the mountains is starting to melt during winter, new research shows. The warming atmosphere may also be suppressing critical summer rains from the western monsoon.

A year ago, when California and Colorado experienced their worst fire seasons on record, drought conditions spanned about half the West, and no areas experienced “extreme” or “exceptional” conditions. But going into this year’s dry season, about 90 percent of the region is now in drought, with 40 percent in those two most severe categories.

EDIT

Other forecasters see little chance for drought-busting storms in April, the last full month of the western wet season. Off the West Coast, a bulge of warm and dry air known as the “Ridiculously Resilient Ridge” that shifts storms northward is forming in the same general area where it contributed to the extreme drought California experienced from 2012 to 2016. As a result, the outlook for the rest of the month in the state is trending toward “extremely dry.” This year’s parched conditions aren’t surprising to climate scientists who study the region. Nearly all recent research suggests that the West is experiencing what climatologists call aridification—decades of drying with rare relief from occasional wet years.

EDIT

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/09042021/west-snowpack-water-drought-climate-change/

[mountain grammy]

1. We're being told our snowpack is 70% of normal

my eyes and my dry sump are telling me 50%.

[Unwind Your Mind]

2. Where I live, it's burned all around our little valley in the last 3-4 years

The gallows joke is that we should be safe for a few years anyway

Reading some very contemplative threads around DU this morning, it strikes me how incredibly resilient humans can be. Look at what we’ve all been through the last 5 years and yet we’re counting our blessings and enjoying our spring weather.

I’m grateful that we are us and not miserable, negative sort of people.

Thanks DU