Drought As A Recurring Extreme Climate Event

Along with global warming, factors such as population growth and increased demands, inefficient use of water resources, overuse of groundwater, mismanagement of water supply systems, misguided policies, and so on contributed to the occurrence of one of the worst droughts that California is experiencing in 2014-2015, which has a negative impact not only on environment, but also on social and economic sectors of California.

In Australia drought has, and can be a serious issue, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology says drought is “Rainfall over a three-month period being in the lowest decile of what has been recorded for that region in the past.” Bureau of Meteorology records show that a fairly impacting drought in Australia around once every eighteen years.

The California Drought is one of the most catastrophic weather and climate related events in recent history. It has singlehandedly altered the geographic landscape of the state and brought down entire industries to a grinding halt. Not since global warming became a prominent fixture in the national spotlight has a climate issue so deeply challenged Californians to reconsider their lifestyles according to their climate conditions. This essay will examine the origins of climate change and the California Drought, how the two are related, the current state of California as a result of the drought, and the future outlook of California.

Drought can occur for many different reasons. Drought mostly occurs by not receiving rain or snow for a prolonged period of time. This can occur if wind patterns change. Humans can also cause drought by cutting down broad areas of trees resulting in the soil in the ground being unable to hold water, a great example of this is the dust bowl of the

Most of us consider drought as a period of dry and hot weather with too little or no rain, and while any or all of these conditions might be existent during drought, the definition of drought is more complex and subtle. According to the United States Geological Survey, California Water Science Center (as cited in Congressional Digest, 2015, p. 2):

As much as we could hope and try, there is no way to have control over the weather. There is the possibility to move water in, but it is much harder to keep water out when many states reach their levels. In chapter four weather and climate is the main goal. According to figure 4.30 in the book California is in the CS, Cfb and H. Which means some are in the highlands with wet winters and hot summer. It seems like the north part is getting plenty of rain, while the southern is consistently battling droughts. On page 104 of the book they mention climate change and how it is not only affecting the US, but the rest of the world as well. Many say that these drought that are happening in California will be short-term, but it unknown how long they

Over thousands of years water has been a very valuable element in our everyday lives. Now we are being faced with a shortage of water affecting not only us, but future generations as well. The drought has become an extreme issue that has affected the United States. For example, in Texas the dry spell has had an impact in families, politics and law, religion, health care, and mass media.

Droughts The articles, “Decade of Drought” by Anne Capeci and “ Drought Report” by Jennifer Johnson both discuss about droughts. “Decade of Drought” by Anne Capeci is more information than “Drought Report” by Jennifer Johnson because it depicts the negatives effects of a drought. To begin, “Decade of Drought” by Anne Capeci explains how it effects the world. For example, “Meanwhile, hot, dry conditions increased the threat of destructive wildfires”(93).This shows a wildfires will happen if it hot and dry conditions and that will make dire wildfire. Capeci also reports “The price of olive oil rose sharply in 2014”(94).This shows that the olive price went more up and people will pay more than they were.

For at least the past four years, California has been in a drought. Since it has been so long of a drought, officials are finally starting to encourage people to diminish their usage of water. When the encouragements are not working, they use force and statewide restrictions are put into place. In an article titled ¨The Wrong Way to Think about California Water¨ by Michael Hiltzik, the author rants on Californians for the amount of water that they use daily, yearly, and constantly. However, the argument only supports one side.

Drought is a deficiency in precipitation over an extended period of time. They are very unpredictable as some are more extreme, some last for months and some persist for years including some severe examples in Australia, which lasted over 10 years. These long periods with water shortages can have an adverse impact on the environment, including vegetation, animals and people. Further drought can occur in virtually all climate zones; whether in the blazing dessert of Australia or the wet, tropical Indonesian coast. Finally due to the wide spread difference in climates around the world a drought can be very different. For example what is conceived a drought in Bali (6 days without water) would defiantly not be a drought in Libya (annual

To examine whether or not there is a link between drought and water quality types of drought had to be examined in order to choose which drought index to use. A drought is deficiency in precipitation over some period of time. Water shortages can include impacts on vegetation, animals, and/or people. For this project, The Palmer Hydrological Index was chosen because it provides numerical classifications of drought. The PHDI includes standardized calculations for each location based on temperature and precipitation variability of the specific location. This type of calculation makes the data collection and analysis easier, as impairment can be compared to a numerical value and drought is calculated specifically based on the regions temperature and precipitation variability.

Drought, like a destructing earthquake or flood, is a natural disaster. Drought is an insidious hazard to nature. It results from a deficiency of precipitation over a long period of time over an area. Precipitation is any kind of moisture like rain, snow, and sleet. One can determine how malicious a drought can be by the amount of precipitation, and how long it is (Gleick, 2006).

It has been over 500 years since the state of California has been this dry. California is in its fourth year of the severe drought with temperatures high and precipitation low. Rain and snow evaporate almost as soon as they hit the ground. The extreme weather can be linked to human caused climate change. Climate change can be blamed for between 8 - 27 percent of the drought conditions between 2012 and 2014 and between 5 - 18 percent in 2014. Climate change has contributed a pretty big amount to California’s drought over the last three years. Over 99 percent of the state of California is unusually dry.

“Natural disasters have killed more than 600,000 people and left behind trillions of dollars in damages in the last two decades, the United Nations said Monday.” (Chan) Extreme weather has caused millions of casualties and extreme damages over the years, but lately there has been an increase in severe weather events. This is causing problems in the US, with the amount of tornadoes rising in tornado alley “Tennessee experienced a 67 percent increase in tornado activity in 1983-2013 compared to the 1954-1983 time period. Oklahoma experienced a nearly 35 percent decrease in tornadoes in 1983-2013 compared to 1954-1983.”

Drought is another factor of climate change that causes severe damages to agriculture and livestock. The effects of drought on agricultural production and livestock holding can be a detrimental issue and result in quality dissatisfaction of products. The agricultural industry can be affected by drought both economically and environmentally. The economical effects of drought on crops and animals can lead to the loss of money and time. When droughts occur farmers lose money because they will have to spend more money earned from their