U.S. West warming faster than rest of world: study - Reuters

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

U.S. West warming faster than rest of world: study
Fri Mar 28, 2008 1:38am EDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The U.S. West is heating up at
nearly twice the rate of the rest of the world and is
likely to face more drought conditions in many of its
fast-growing cities, an environmental group said on
Thursday.

By analyzing federal government temperature data, the
Natural Resources Defense Council concluded that the
average temperature in the 11-state Western region from
2003-07 was 1.7 degrees Fahrenheit (0.94 degrees Celsius)
higher than the historical average of the 20th century.

The global average increase for the same period was 1.0
degrees Fahrenheit (0.55 degrees Celsius).

In the Colorado River Basin, which supplies water to big
and fast-growing cities like Los Angeles, San Diego, Las
Vegas and Denver, the average temperature rose 2.2
degrees Fahrenheit (1.21 degrees Celsius), the U.S.
group said.

Most of the river's water comes from melting snow in
the mountains, and climate scientists predict hotter
temperatures will reduce the snowpack and increase
evaporation, the NRDC said in a statement.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSN2728295220080328

[kirby]

1. Chickens coming home to roost? n/t

[Warpy]

2. The air is so dry out here

that the snowpack already evaporates (sublimates, for the geeks) even when it's cold enough to stick under trees and bushes. That's one of the things I had to get used to, needing to water shrubs and trees in winter when there was snow on the ground because that snow wasn't going to melt. It would just get sucked directly into dry air.

[villager]

3. so can we stop building all these fucking subdivisions and malls out here now?

n/t