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The drought in the US Southwest is the worst in 1,200 years

2022-02-15T14:31:07.961Z


For 22 years, parts of the United States have been consistently too dry and too hot. Scientists have now determined that it hasn't been this dry since the year 800. The climate crisis is partly responsible for the “mega drought”.


Enlarge image

The Palisades Reservoir in the US state of Idaho is almost empty

Photo: Natalie Behring/Getty Images

Since 2000, parts of the American Southwest have been affected by drought.

Water supplies are dwindling, crops are drying up, animals are dying of thirst, and forests are being eaten up by fires.

And the drought continues.

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According to researchers from the USA, this "mega drought" is the worst in 1200 years: since the year 800 there has not been a period that has been as dry as the period since the turn of the millennium.

The scientists published their findings in the journal Nature Climate Change.

According to the study, it was previously assumed that there had not been such a drought for at least 500 years.

But the extremely dry summer of 2021 changed the balance again.

Tree rings are linked to soil moisture content

The researchers used tree rings for their study – in wet years these rings in the trunk of a tree are wider, in dry years they are thinner.

Then the scientists used climate observation data from the past century to establish a link between the width of the tree rings and the moisture content of the soil.

They then applied this relation as an operand to data from much older trees.

This resulted in a balance of soil moisture over twelve centuries.

more on the subject

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  • Weather emergency in the western US: "It's an apocalyptic atmosphere with this record heat"

  • Lake Mead on the Colorado River: The largest water reservoir in the USA is empty like never before

There is no uniform definition of a »mega drought«.

However, it would generally be understood to mean a drought that is both severe and prolonged.

A mega drought lasts several decades.

During this time, there may also be periods when there is sufficient precipitation.

There just aren't enough consecutive wet years to end the drought.

Even in the case of the current drought in the US West, there have been several wet years.

In 2005 in particular, a lot of rain fell.

The climate crisis is having an effect

The fact that the drought did not end at that point, i.e. after five years, is partly due to man-made changes in the climate.

That doesn't mean that this drought wouldn't have happened without climate change, Park Williams told the New York Times.

The climate scientist at the University of California had carried out the study.

"But the severity of the drought would have been only about 60 percent of what it was."

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Extreme weather quick study: America's heatwave would have been 'almost impossible' without climate changeBy Kurt Stukenberg

Climate change is also making it more likely that the drought will continue, the study says.

"This drought is still going strong at 22 years old," Williams said.

It is very likely that it will continue.

Several previous mega droughts from the 1200-year record would have lasted up to 30 years.

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Source: spiegel

All tech articles on 2022-02-15

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