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Droughts longer, rainfall more erratic over the last five decades in most of the West The time between rainfalls have become longer and occurred more erratically in the last 50 years in the Southwest. Image shows a section of the Santa Rita Experimental Range site outside Tucson, Ariz. Photo byJoel Biederman -USDA ARS TUCSON, Ariz. — Dry periods between rainstorms have become longer and annual rainfall has become more erratic across most of the western United States during the past 50 years, according to a study published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Servi...

William K. Smith Periods of drought in the western United States have become longer over the past 50 years, according to a new study from researchers in the University of Arizona College of Agriculture and Life Sciences in partnership with the USDA Agricultural Research Service. In hopes of understanding how significantly rainfall totals and timing have changed in the past five decades, the researchers analyzed daily meteorological data from over 300 long-term weather stations across the western U.S. "In the West, total annual rainfall has decreased by about 0.4 inches since the 1970s. The ...