Rise Of Drought In The United States

Drought condition exists throughout most of Arizona. Variable amounts of rainfall throughout last year’s where was significantly below the normal with surface water flows, reservoir levels, and well water pumping levels are at some of their lowest ever recorded all of that act as indication of drought occurrence. Drought is a normal recurring feature of climate, not a rare or random event. Climate influence water quality throughout temperature, precipitation, and wind by affecting the physical, chemical, and biological characteristics of water. For instance, temperature fluctuation results in more stress on aquatic organism within water body, in the same way wind fluctuation has a direct effect on evaporation rate. Municipal water providers in Flagstaff, Williams, Mayer, Pine, Strawberry, and in areas near Sierra Vista, Sonoita, and Picacho have suffered from some potable

It is undeniable that climate change is drastically changing our current landscapes throughout the world. There are many individuals who consider climate change to be a natural and organic progression, but many studies indicate that due to excess greenhouse gas emissions, humans are accelerating global warming at an alarming rate. It’s convenient to continuously dismiss the studies and evidence that suggest climate change is real and it could have serious consequences, but when these drastic changes are taking place in our own backyard, it becomes a harsh reality. There is longstanding research, which indicates that the Colorado River has been in a drought since the early 2000’s and researchers allege that due to rising temperatures, 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):

“The reason why this is important is because the amount of moisture that the atmosphere is demanding due to human-caused global warming is rising,” remarked A. Park Williams, a bioclimatologist at Columbia University, and lead author of the study. “And it’s rising steadily such that every year the atmosphere sets a record in how much water it is demanding regardless of what natural climate variability does.”

A drought can last for days, months, or even years, which is why many plant species have adapted to droughts. These include cactus, agave, and Living stone. During the 1930s, most of the United States was plunged into drought, which made it drier than normal. The drought began in the southwestern US in the 1930s and continued into the 1950s. This was known as the tragic

Drought is a period of below average rainfall in a specified region resulting in prolonged shortages in its water supply. Drought in the West is a long-lasting concept where a single dry year does not make a drought. Drought is a big problem because it leads to plant dying and when the plants die the animals also die because they have nothing to eat. Which leads people to die because they lack food. California and Arizona are currently suffering from a drought problem.

The impacts of climate change on drought attributes continue to be debated in the scientific community, even as multiple regions, globally and in the United States, experience severe droughts. Drought is a recurrent problem in many parts of the Conterminous United States (CONUS). Heat waves and droughts alone caused damage of around $210.1 billion dollars during 1980-2011 in the United States and ranked second highest after tropical cyclones in terms of financial losses (Smith and Katz, 2013). Droughts are difficult to characterize because of complex interdependence among various drought attributes, such as severity (magnitude), duration, spatial coverage, frequency and persistence. In a design context, assumption of complete independence or

Another factor that contributes to the causes of drought is the lack of oceanic air mass. Most dry land is given a nice breeze of water by oceanic winds. However, if these winds are not strong enough to get the evaporated water to the dry lands, these lands will lack the moisture they desperately need (100 Ways, 2012).

Precipitation changes and snow cover patterns will alter the way water is being transported causing more droughts and floods in summer and landslides in winter.

Large-scale, global temperature analyses and climate change models may sometimes oversimplify or generalize smaller, regional trends. Only until a few years ago, efforts on climate change projections for island-scale has intensified for more reliable assessments of various impacts of long-term climate trends (Hamilton, 2014). Temperature changes over Hawaiʻi are expected to exceed the current daily maximum values by the end of the 21st century (Lauer et al., 2013). Mountainous tropical islands in the Hawaiian archipelago are showing greater warming than the lower elevations (Giambelluca et al. 2008; Diaz et al. 2011, 2014). Observed surface air temperature trends can also be used to test regionally downscaled climate models. The goal of this thesis is to analyze climate data to assess possible trends that are likely to impact future management of summit ecosystems. This research is essential to the effective protection and restoration of these fragile alpine and subalpine ecosystems. The primary focus of this research is to expand on and update the previous analysis by Giambelluca et al. (2008) by extending the data set from 2006 through to 2014-15 in order to: (a) develop a revised Hawaiʻi Temperature Index to include the more recent data; (b) assess changes that occurred in the

The CGCM4 under both IPCC RCP8.5 and RCP2.6 in the study area projected a warmer climate in which both precipitation and temperature generally increased (Figure. 2). At the end of the 21st century, the “wet” CGCM4, under IPCC RCP8.5 projected a mean annual temperature increase of 3.7 °C and a mean annual precipitation increase of 18% (RCP8.5-Wet), whereas the “dry” CGCM4 predicted an increase of 4.4°C and a 9% increase in precipitation (RCP8.5-Dry). Compared with IPCC RCP8.5, the CGCM4 projected relatively lower increases in temperature and precipitation under IPCC RCP2.6 (+1.0°C and +10% precipitations in RCP2.6-Wet and +1.6°C and +5% precipitations in RCP2.6-Dry). Therefore, cyclical drought events may last longer and severer in the future in the

When addressing the nature of water changes, it is critical to distinguish droughts- departures from a local climatological norm that is presumed known- from actual dryness itself. After conceptually separating the two, it was found that America was not just in a temporary drought but would continue to grow drier. (Sherwood) A key component that many high-profile climate reports fail to consider is that with warming land, more rain is needed to sustain it. Although many regions will get more rain, few will get enough to match the growing evaporative demand. If this demand is not met, precipitation will continue to decrease, and our water resource will continue to shrink. (Sherwood) Although humans could take further measures to reserve additional freshwater, “humans already appropriate over 50 percent of all available renewable freshwater.” (Srinivasan) Because water consumption is proportional to the available amount of water, as America’s freshwater supply drops they begin to use a higher percentage of this valuable resource, leaving little amounts of water for other purposes. (Sherwood) To compensate for this high-use of water, America must put caps

Heat waves everywhere are projected to become more intense and increase in duration. Summer temperatures are predicted to continue to rise, eventually leading to a greater reduction of soil moisture, which then causes the exacerbation of heat waves and a widespread number of droughts (“Global Climate Change: Effects”). Droughts not only have adverse effects on livestock and crops, but droughts also affect water levels on rivers of commerce, such as the Mississippi, which hinders the transportation of goods. Droughts lead to concerns being raised regarding the reliability of electricity production from power plants that require “cooling water to maintain safe operations”, hydroelectric power may also become hard to acquire or simply unavailable during droughts (“Drought and Climate Change”). In countries that are already facing issues of food insecurity, cost spikes associated with a lower availability and abundance of crops could potentially lead to migration, famine, or social unrest.

Analyzing the precipitation graph we see that there are very minimal similarities on the temperature graph. There is an obvious difference in the volume of precipitation, the trend seen in this graph is specific to the Hot Springs, AR location, over a 15 year period there is a large amount of precipitation in the area. Big Sky, MT has a trend of very little precipitation except in 2005 where there was an unforeseen amount of precipitation. Big Sky shows a very consistent and even graph, while Hot Springs is much more unstable. This graph provides a strong case for Big Sky, MT as there is very little precipitation compared to Hot Springs, AR.

Firstly, to understand why drought is such a major concern, one must understand drought. Living in Texas my entire life has given me an exceptionally thorough understanding of what drought is. However, one might not completely comprehend drought and its effects if they did not experience it through their entire life. According to Hansen, drought is measured by the impact it has on the environment. The four types of drought commonly used are meteorological, agricultural, hydrological, and socioeconomic. Meteorological can be defined by a time frame of significantly diminished precipitation. Agricultural drought is the identification of the lack of moisture content in the soil. Hydrological drought refers