Continuation of ‘megadrought’ in U.S. West expected to lead to more wildfires, damaged crops: study
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FILE - In this March 10, 2021, file photo, a woman strolls along the beach under rain clouds in Seal Beach, Calif. Rainstorms grew more erratic and droughts much longer across most of the U.S. West over the past half-century as climate change warmed the planet, according to a sweeping government study released, Tuesday, April 6, 2021, that concludes the situation in the region is worsening. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)AP
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BILLINGS, Mont. Rainstorms grew more erratic and droughts much longer across most of the U.S. West over the past half-century as climate change warmed the planet, according to a sweeping government study released Tuesday that concludes the situation is worsening.
Study: Drought-breaking rains more rare, erratic in U.S. West
FILE - In this March 10, 2021, file photo, a woman strolls along the beach under rain clouds in Seal Beach, Calif. Rainstorms grew more erratic and droughts much longer across most of the U.S. West over the past half-century as climate change warmed the planet, according to a sweeping government study released, Tuesday, April 6, 2021, that concludes the situation in the region is worsening. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
FILE - In this Feb. 17, 2021, file photo, an empty irrigation canal lines a tree farm in Corrales, N.M., as snow covers the Sandia Mountains in the background. Rainstorms grew more erratic and droughts much longer across most of the U.S. West over the past half-century as climate change warmed the planet, according to a sweeping government study released, Tuesday, April 6, 2021, that concludes the situation in the region is worsening. (AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan, File)
The study comes with almost two-thirds of the contiguous U.S. beset by abnormally dry conditions. Warm temperatures forecast for the next several months could make it the worst spring drought in almost a decade, affecting roughly 74 million people across the U.S., the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said. How is California s snowpack measured? Why is it important? And how is our snowpack stacking up this winter, so far? NBC 7 meteorologist Crystal Egger breaks it all down.
Water use cutbacks, damaged wheat crops, more fires and lower reservoirs in California and the Southwest are possible, weather service and agriculture officials have warned. Climate scientists are calling what’s happening in the West a continuation of a “megadrought” that started in 1999.
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) Rainstorms grew more erratic and droughts much longer across most of the U.S. West over the past half-century as climate change warmed the planet, according to a sweeping government study released Tuesday that concludes the situation is worsening.
The most dramatic changes were recorded in the desert Southwest, where the average dry period between rainstorms grew from about 30 days in the 1970s to 45 days between storms now, said Joel Biederman, a research hydrologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Southwest Watershed Research Center in Tucson, Arizona.
The consequences of the intense dry periods that pummeled areas of the West in recent years were severe more intense and dangerous wildfires, parched croplands and not enough vegetation to support livestock and wildlife. And the problem appears to be accelerating, with rainstorms becoming increasingly unpredictable, and more areas showing longer intervals between storms since the turn of the century
Drought-breaking rains more rare, erratic in US West, study finds
By MATTHEW BROWN The Associated Press,Updated April 6, 2021, 1 hour ago
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A person walked on a dried lake bed at Folsom Lake in Folsom, California, on March 31, 2021.David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) â Rainstorms grew more erratic and droughts much longer across most of the U.S. West over the past half-century as climate change warmed the planet, according to a sweeping government study released Tuesday that concludes the situation is worsening.
The most dramatic changes were recorded in the desert Southwest, where the average dry period between rainstorms grew from about 30 days in the 1970s to 45 days between storms now, said Joel Biederman, a research hydrologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Southwest Watershed Research Center in Tucson, Arizona.