Droughts longer, rainfall more erratic over the last five decades in most of the West
The time between rainfalls have become longer and occurred more erratically in the last 50 years in the Southwest. Image shows a section of the Santa Rita Experimental Range site outside Tucson, Ariz. Photo byJoel Biederman
-USDA ARS
TUCSON, Ariz. — Dry periods between rainstorms have become longer and annual rainfall has become more erratic across most of the western United States during the past 50 years, according to a study published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service and the University of Arizona.