Global warming is making western U.S. 'megadrought' the worst in centuries, study says

[Zorro]

Source: LA Times

A two-decade-long dry spell that has parched much of the western United States is turning into one of the deepest “megadroughts” the region has experienced in more than 1,200 years, a new study found.

And about half of this historic drought can be blamed on man-made global warming, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Science.

Researchers focused on a nine-state area from Oregon and Wyoming down through California and New Mexico, plus a sliver of southwestern Montana and parts of northern Mexico. They used thousands of tree rings to compare a drought that started in 2000 and is still going (despite a wet 2019) to four previous megadroughts since the year 800.

Using soil moisture as the key measurement, they found only one other drought that was as big — and was probably slightly bigger. That one began in 1575, just 10 years after St. Augustine, the first European city in the United States, was founded, and it ended before the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock in 1620.

Read more: https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2020-04-16/global-warming-megadrought-worst

[RT Atlanta]

1. Yuk

This, coupled with all of the growth in the region in the last few decades and depleted aquifers does not help.

[Dworkin]

2. God

Folks,

No worries, God is controlling the world thermostat and water supplies.

D.

[paleotn]

5. Well, he's doing....

a pretty shitty job of it. And which god? The Old Testament smiter? I could believe that. He routinely f'd things up and then killed a bunch of folks in a fit of rage, even though he was mostly to blame all along.

[Dworkin]

9. You're not wrong.

Paleotn,

Of course I was kidding with my previous post.

I was hoping the handclap would show the irony of a statement that I picked up from a forum some years back. At the time the poster seemed to believe it.

D.

[paleotn]

12. I figured and thought I'd play along.

[ancianita]

3. A drought means dead plant life, more fires, and hell by October.

[bucolic_frolic]

4. WTF? St. Augustine? Florida?

They tell us in Massachusetts it was Plymouth Rock, 1620. They told us in Virginia it was Jamestown. The Vikings might have made Nova Scotia and New England. Now it's St. Augustine? Why did they hide this?

[Igel]

7. It's the "full sentence" problem.

Plymouth Rock in 1620 was the first New England colony and became big in myth.

Jamestown, not so much. First attempt was a failure and isn't counted. 1619 was try #2.

Roanoake, a couple of decades before Jamestown #1 had two tries, and both failed.

St. Augustine was built by the Spanish. And it wasn't part of the US until we got it from Spain in 1820. Part was invasion, but part was also Spain was having trouble holding onto territories. It got the US to cede all claims to TX in exchange for Florida. Most middle-school history books I've seen treat Florida like they treat the Islamic expansion--focus on things before it, then focus on something after it, and surprise! the map's different, thanks for maybe noticing but we're not going to explain why things changed.

Want better? There were fishermen from Spain off the coast of Nova Scotia and New England. They'd catch from the fishing grounds there, sometimes even dry them on land, and then head back. The indigenous there weren't naifs.

Squanto, of Plymouth Rock "first Thanksgiving" fame, the "plant a fish with each corn kernel" guy, had been taken captive and spent time in Spain before heading back to what's now Massachusetts. (Coincidentally, it's been pointed out, the only Native American tribe we know of that did the fish+corn trick was the Wampanoag, and while it's a rare thing in Europe, where Squanto was held in Spain there was a long-standing tradition of planting corn with small fish as fertilizer.)

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. St. Augustine was, however, British from 1763 to 1783

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Augustine,_Florida#Loyalist_haven_under_British_rule

Ceded to the British at the end of the 7 Years' War, handed back as part of the establishment of the USA.

[paleotn]

6. Medieval warm period.....

saw severe drought in SW North America. Of course this time we caused this and are on a path to blow way past the Medieval warm period and land somewhere between PETM and end Permian. It won't be pretty.

[Maxheader]

10. Hmm..?

Haven't we done this dance before?

Ya know...ignored the inevitable, put ourselves in grave danger ...

Not prepared..?

[NCjack]

11. It's a fake drought -- not.