Scientists: The American Southwest Faces a “Megadrought” [View all]

[HuckleB]

“This will be worse than anything seen during the last 2,000 years," says the lead author of the paper. Also: "Megadrought" is a real term.
http://modernfarmer.com/2014/09/scientists-american-southwest-faces-megadrought/

"A new study published as a joint effort by scientists at Cornell University, the University of Arizona, and the U.S. Geological Survey finds that the chances of the Southwest facing a “megadrought” are much higher than previously suspected.

According to the new study, “the chances of the southwestern United States experiencing a decade-long drought is at least 50 percent, and the chances of a ‘megadrought’ – one that lasts up to 35 years – ranges from 20 to 50 percent over the next century.” Not so crazy, according to Richard Seager, a climate scientist at Columbia University who has helped pen many studies of historical megadroughts: “By some measures the west has been in drought since 1998 so we might be approaching a megadrought classification!” he says. The study points to manmade global climate change as a possible cause for the drought, which would affect portions of California (where a drought is currently decimating farms), Arizona and New Mexico.

..."


Umm. Yikes.