The searing “megadrought” that has gripped the southwest U.S. for more than two decades is the driest 22-year period in at least 1,200 years. The region hasn’t seen a more severe drought since the start of the scientific record around the year 800.
The searing “megadrought” that has gripped the southwest U.S. for more than two decades is the driest 22-year period in at least 1,200 years. The region hasn’t seen a more severe drought since the start of the scientific record around the year 800, according to new research published yesterday.
“It probably wouldn’t even be a continuous drought,” said Benjamin Cook, a NASA climate scientist and a co-author of the new study, published in Nature Climate Change. “We still would have had a drought. It still would have been reasonably bad. But it would be nowhere near the record-breaking event that we’re seeing right now.”
These conditions have contributed to ongoing water woes across the Western states. Lake Mead and Lake Powell—two of the country’s largest reservoirs that provide water for millions of people—both reached record low levels in 2021. The federal government declared a water shortage at Lake Mead last year for the first time in the reservoir’s history.
In the previous study and its update, the researchers relied on analyses of ancient, preserved tree rings, which can provide information about the climate conditions over the course of the tree’s life. These tree ring records stretch back all the way to 800. Still, the research concludes, the odds are significantly higher with more extreme levels of future warming. Climate action still makes a major difference.
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