The megadrought which has gripped western U.S. states including California and Arizona over the past two decades has been made substantially worse by the human-caused climate crisis, new research shows, resulting in the region s driest period in about 1,200 years.Scientists at the University of Cali.
‘Megadrought’ persists in western U.S., as another extremely dry year develops
The long-running dry stretch rivals anything in the last 1200 years, a sign of climate-change induced aridification.
ByAlejandra Borunda
Email
Water levels usually peak in May at Folsom Lake in California, rising as Sierra Nevada snowpack melts away and courses down to the reservoir, near Sacramento.
But this year, the drought that has gripped much of the U.S. West is already so strong that the lake is only half as full as normal. Instead of water, fields of purple lupines line vast swaths of dry lakebed.
Folsom Lake’s situation is emblematic of the deepening drought across the western United States. As of May 6, 67 percent of the region was in a state of “severe” drought or worse; a stunning 21 percent is already in “exceptional” drought, the worst category in the U.S. Drought Monitor’s framework. At Lake Mead, one of the two major reservoirs of the Colorado River, which some 40 mi
Stop at this Route 66 roadside attraction on trips through Southern Missouri
This main attraction was once called the âWorldâs Largest Rocking Chair,â a title later validated by Guinness World Records and lost to a similar chair in Casey, Illinois.
Courtesy of The Fanning 66 Outpost
In 2008, John R. Bland and Joe Medwick designed and constructed a 42-foot-tall and 20-foot-wide monument, a statue of sorts on historic Route 66 at what is now the Fanning 66 Outpost & Feedstore at 5957 State Hwy ZZ in Cuba, Missouri. The main attraction was called the âWorldâs Largest Rocking Chair,â a title later validated by Guinness World Records. The contraption even once swayed like a functioning rocking chair but was bolted down after construction for the obvious safety concerns.