When it comes to talking about drought, California always grabs the headlines. But what about
other states? Sadly, things aren’t looking much wetter for the rest of the country either.
Hey everyone, Julia here for DNews. As of last week much of California remains in exceptional
drought, the worst category there is. We’ve talked a lot about the big drought in California
before. Not surprisingly, a lot of the at-risk states are in the West, according to recent
data from The U.S. Drought Monitor.
Along with California, almost all of Nevada and Oregon are severely dry, some parts of
Nevada are even exceptionally dry. Other states are feeling the heat too. The monitor shows
that large swaths of Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah are experiencing abnormally and moderately
dry conditions. Kansas is still recovering from last year when 93% of the state was in
severe drought.
Another center of drought, is in the Southern Plains in Oklahoma and Texas. Parts of North
and Western Oklahoma have seen devastating extreme drought over the past few years. But
last month some rains relieved a little of that stress. Some areas saw an 8% drop in
drought coverage.
Texas’s drought started in 2011, which ranked as the driest year on record. Since then,
the drought shows no sign of letting up. The Lone Star State has seen water tables drop
more than 150 feet in some areas. Central Texas is suffering the most, facing severe
to exceptional drought. It’s so bad that in March of this year, Governor Greg Abbott
issued an Emergency Disaster Proclamation certifying that exceptional drought conditions
posed a threat of imminent disaster.
But the drought is heading north, too. Most of the high plains, Minnesota, Wisconsin,
North and South Dakota are in moderate to severe conditions. According to one report
by the Government Accountability Office, Montana is most likely to face a water shortage in
the next decade.
Even Hawaii is feeling the heat. According to the National Weather service, most of the
“big islands” are in a moderate drought and the month of February saw some record
high temperatures.
The early part of this decade saw the worst drought since the 1950s. In 2012, sixty four
percent of the US was listed as moderately to extremely dry. All this drought and devastation
recalls the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. When in 1934 sixty eight percent of the country was
extremely dry.
Recent research from scientists at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science
found the reason that drought was so bad. The surface temperatures of the Pacific Ocean
ends up controlling the jet stream. As it moves across the country, the stream carries
storms like a conveyor belt. When the ocean heats up, it can move those storms North into
Canada or further East, skipping over the West and Great Plains. So that’s one of
the reasons the West is so dry.
And that’s what happened in the Dust Bowl. Parts of the surface water in Pacific Ocean
warmed up in 1934 and 1936. The coastline from Alaska to LA saw unseasonably warm temperatures,
that would be bad enough, but stuff was going on on the other side of the country too. Small
spots of surface water ALSO warmed up off the coast of Maine and Nova Scotia.
These two hot spots changed air pressure and weather patterns. This change led to less
rainfall and “created perfect conditions for scorching hot temperatures to develop
in the heart of the US." according to one of the authors of the study.
Making matters worse, poor agricultural practices ruined soil creating huge dust storms. This
atmospheric dust created a positive feedback loop on the high pressure systems to move
the water elsewhere.
A similar warming occurred recently off the coast of Maine, possibly leading to the dry
spell of 2011-2012. But luckily there wasn’t an increase in temperatures on the Pacific
Coast line. While we lucked out that time, the researchers stress that these kind of
events are more likely to happen thanks to climate change. Some estimates say we could
face the worst drought in a millennia if things stay the same.
So where are we going to get more fresh water from? Well some people think the ocean could
save us, Julian doesn’t think so. To find out why, check out this video right here.
Alright guys what do you think could fix the drought? Let us know down in the comments
below or if you have any questions about weather leave those too and we could answer them in
a future episode. Make sure you subscribe so you don’t miss an episode. and as always,
thank for watching DNews.