https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/feb/15/us-west-megadrought-worst-1200-years-study

 

Gabrielle Canon in Los Angeles
@GabrielleCanon
Tue 15 Feb 2022 07.27 EST

The American west has spent the last two decades in what scientists are now saying is the most extreme megadrought in at least 1,200 years. In a new study, published on Monday, researchers also noted that human-caused climate change is a significant driver of the destructive conditions and offered a grim prognosis: even drier decades lie ahead.

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In the summer of 2021, both Lake Mead and Lake Powell – the largest reservoirs in North America – reached record-low levels. Nearly 65% of the American west is experiencing in severe drought according to the US drought monitor, even after record rainfall hit some areas late last year. For the first time, federal official curbed allocations from the Colorado River Basin, which supplies water and power for more than 40 million people. Wildfires in the last two years have left behind more blackened earth than ever before and performed feats never thought possible.

So far conditions this year have not helped to turn the situation around. California saw one of the driest Januaries on record. February has already delivered heat waves that broke records across the state. By the start of this month, the snowpack has dwindled to below-average, melting rapidly after reaching 160% of average at the start of the year. Forecasts show there’s little short-term relief in sight.

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Still, Smerdon cast the conclusions in a more hopeful light. The extreme events taking place right in people’s backyards may spur understanding and action. “Knowing is half the battle,” he says. “We have a lot of challenges in front of us but we all have agency in the face of this. And there are pathways we can take that are much more sustainable and involve much less risk than the burn baby burn approach that we would take if we didn’t do anything.”