In New Mexico, where half the state is experiencing a “special drought”, water districts are located delaying sessions for farmers and to encourage them to not only sow seeds if possible.
All told, about 85% of Westerners are currently suffering from drought, according to the US Drought Monitor. About half of the region is now experiencing severe or severe drought, after years of dry, hot summed by climate change.
The cause of the drought this year is the low summer winds as well as the La Niña weather which hit the hurricane in the north. But the problem continues with heavy rain and hail in recent months. The southwest has suffered from the worst drought since the 16th century, according to study in Science last year.
Climate change poses 46% of the risk, resulting in less drought which scientists see as part of the “megadrought” phase. Several studies have found that high temperatures could mean “extreme drought and southerly west,” he realized 2018 Climate Review.
“Snow melts very quickly. There is a lot of steam. It just changes the game in a variety of ways, “said Newsha Ajami, head of city affairs at Stanford’s Water in the West.
Alarm bells
Areas are already busy dealing with the coming disasters.
In California, Ambassador Gavin Newsom has given an idea is spending more than $ 5 billion to meet emergency water needs and to install equipment in other areas, among other things. He too announced the urgency In all 41 states, located approximately in northern California and the Central Valley, the richest state.
In Marin, a region north of San Francisco located far from the wetlands, storage areas are very low due to low rainfall this year. The water section discusses the possibility of Build temporary pipes crossing the Richmond Bridge – San Rafael to ensure water availability, for the first time since the drought that plagued the state from 1976 to 1977.
Investigators, government officials, and emergency responders are also preparing for another bad fire season, which is starting early. The Palisades fire near Los Angeles is raging more than 1,000 acres of dry brush in recent days, forcing more than 1,000 people to flee.
“Some of the most dangerous things to do during a fire are obvious; others are not, ”states Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, who specializes in atmospheric drought, floods, and wildfires. “All the known ones are ringing the alarm bells.”
New features
Some weather examples find this Heat increases flexibility how rain works, creating what California researchers say “whip”In the midst of a drought and flood.
But the length of the overdose does not change in some way, although the rainfall may be similar. If communities do not think seriously about how they manage their water supply, it simply means moving from one disaster to another (see the 2012–2016 drought in California, followed by years of floods that caused mudslides, washed roads and pushed a dam together almost broken).
“We need to change our mindset that ‘drought is not a new phenomenon,'” Ajami said.
This will require better use of groundwater for purification of contaminated water and replenish it during heavy rainfall. Areas will also need to make better use of water when it is in the system, reducing, reusing and rehabilitating it whenever possible.
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