The hot and dry conditions that have gripped the southwestern United States since 2000 account for the driest 22-year period on record stretching back 1,200 years, according to a study published Monday in the journal Nature Climate Change. What’s more, this new research finds that although there would have been a drought anyway, climate change […]
aridification
Posted inClimate, Environment, News, Water, Wildfire
The West is baking, burning and drying out. These numbers explain why and how.
By Seth Borenstein, The Associated Press The American West is baking, burning and drying in intertwined extreme weather. Four sets of numbers explain how bad it is now, while several others explain why it got this bad. The West is going through “the trifecta of an epically dry year followed by incredible heat the last […]
Posted inClimate, Environment, News, Water, Wildfire
Drier springs bring hotter summers in the withering Southwest
A question has bothered climatologist Park Williams during the decade he’s been probing drought in the Southwest. Like other climate scientists, he knew from research papers and worldwide storm patterns that a warming atmosphere is thirstier and sops up more moisture from oceans and the land. “But, in the Southwest, we’ve seen the exact opposite […]
Posted inClimate, Growth, News, Water
Drought forces Grand Junction to dip into Colorado River for drinking water for the first time in more than 50 years
For 65 years, the Ute Water Conservancy District serving Grand Junction and Mesa County has let the Colorado River flow on by, while drawing drinking water from pristine runoff 11,000 feet high on Grand Mesa. The severe, ongoing drought has now forced other plans. The utility has for the first time begun to mix Colorado […]