A mega-drought has eroded water supplies, devastated farms and ranches, and fuelled fires across the American Southwest for 25 years. Not in 12 centuries has the region been so dry for so long.
Now comes worse news: relief may still be decades away.
According to new findings published in the journal Nature Geoscience, the dry spell is not just a bout of bad luck, no hard time that could end soon.
Instead, it appears to be the result of a Pacific Ocean temperature pattern that is “locked in” due to global warming, said Victoria Todd, a PhD student in paleoclimatology at the University of Texas at Austin who led the new research.
That means the drought could continue until 2050, perhaps even 2100 and beyond – in fact, Ms. Todd said, as long as humans continue to warm the planet….
It also talks about the conditions in California that we have been following since 2013
Below: Lake Powell in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area in Arizona, where July water levels are only at a third of capacity.
Credit…Rebecca Noble/Getty Images
