Aerial footage shows destruction by floodwaters in Yellowstone 0:53
(CNN) --
This week, the western United States has seen an aspect of the climate crisis that scientists have been warning about for years.
In the midst of a prolonged water-scarce-inducing megadrought, one area, Yellowstone, was overwhelmed by torrential rains and rapid snow melt that, instead of replenishing the soil in a matter of weeks or months, created a torrent of flash flooding that ripped out roads and bridges and caused severe damage to one of the country's most treasured national parks.
Meanwhile, drought conditions persisted in the Southwest, where water is desperately needed to replenish the nation's largest reservoirs and relieve regions racked by record-breaking wildfires.
A respite from record heat is coming, but it won't last long
The latest update from the US Drought Monitor this Thursday showed the stark contrast between the humid Northwest and the hot, dry Southwest.
This party-or-famine contrast is a pattern that the climate crisis tends to amplify: extremes on both sides of the spectrum, with the pendulum sometimes swinging suddenly back and forth.
In the Pacific Northwest, drought conditions have improved significantly in recent weeks, with severe drought areas down from a high of 55% in April to 25% this week.
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"Much of the northern fringe states experienced beneficial precipitation and near- or below-normal temperatures, predominantly leading to improved drought from the Pacific Northwest to the Northern Plains," Drought Monitor noted.
But this persistent and active storm track, which continues to bring rain and snow to the Northwest, has largely bypassed California and the Southwest.
The US Bureau of Reclamation this week forecast that Arizona, Nevada and California would see even more significant cuts to their Colorado River water allocations beginning next year.
Historic flooding affects Yellowstone Park 0:55
Federal officials make these decisions each year in August.
Lake Mead, the nation's largest reservoir serving millions of people in the Southwest, is already performing well below what last year's projections suggested, even in its worst-case scenario.
Last August, the office predicted that the reservoir would probably be 322.78 meters above sea level by the end of this month, and 322.17 meters in the worst case.
But now it is around 318 meters.
In New Mexico, where two of the largest fires in state history are still burning, the drought summary noted that temperatures were 5 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit above average, making drought conditions worse in parts western and southern New Mexico.
More than 50% of the state is in exceptional drought, the highest classification on the drought monitor, up from zero in January.
This extreme dryness is playing a major role in fueling a year of fires that is shaping up to be the worst on record.
Another sign of the climate crisis.
A recent study by the federal government's Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico revealed that some parts of the upper Colorado River basin, including the states of Colorado, Wyoming and Utah, will see peak water flow earlier due to rapid melting of snow, and a reduction of up to 60% of snow in the coming decades.
"We're definitely looking at a hotter future," Katrina Bennett, a hydrologist at the lab and lead author of the study, told CNN.
"There will be more of those kinds of wet-to-dry scenarios that we're seeing, but in any case, we're going to see more minimum streamflow, increased drier soils, and less snowpack, which together will lead to the probability of drought increasing across the board, especially in the highlands, where we haven't really seen that intense drought stress yet."
climatic heat crisis
