severe western drought
- Thread starter anatta
- Start date
Depleted water reservoirs and wildfire damage are already taking a toll on residents and businesses. The Hermits Peak Fire, which continues to blaze in New Mexico, has already scorched around 315,830 acres.
Meanwhile, states like California have instituted severe water restrictions, though water consumption has continued to rise. On an even grimmer note, low water levels at Lake Mead have threatened hydropower plants and exposed bodies once submerged in the reservoirs.
While conditions may ease slightly as the region enters its summer monsoon season, the outlook remains dry as the region navigates a historic, multi-decade megadrought.
A number of states including California, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Arizona, and tribal nations like the Navajo Nation have all declared drought states of emergency and allocated resources for managing the water crisis.
ince 2000, droughts have cost the U.S. around $160.8 billion, according to the NOAA. That figure jumps to $272 billion when accounting for destructive wildfires that are more prone in arid conditions.
With water already becoming more scarce, the increasing population in the West — and therefore demand for water — has inflamed the situation.
An Economic Innovation Group report using county-level population data found that the trend of people moving to water-starved states has only accelerated during the pandemic.
Inland California, the Mountain West, and eastern Texas saw the greatest growth, and overall, 10 of the top 15 counties for population growth were in the Western U.S: Maricopa County, Arizona (Phoenix), was ranked first, followed by Collin County, Texas, and Riverside County, California.
"Overall, the Sunbelt and the Mountain West continued to outshine the rest of the country. Remote rural counties in eastern Oregon and northern Idaho experienced robust population growth while every single county in Nevada gained population.”
Another EIG study found that an additional 20 million residents could move to drought-stricken counties by 2040. Water managers are already balancing razor-thin water budgets at current population levels.
"With reservoirs at record low levels throughout the West and the effects of sustained drought conditions increasingly being felt from agriculture to development, one of the most far-reaching questions in the United States over the coming decades is whether growth trends will ultimately collide with nature’s ability to sustain such a large influx of people," Daniel Newman, the report's author, wrote.
Fire and water
Doling out water supplies isn't the only issue residents have to contend with.
Suburban neighborhoods sprawling out into more rural areas are creating a more substantial wild-urban interface at the same time as the wildfire season creeps earlier and longer.
In the last month, two Colorado Springs neighborhoods were evacuated due to fires, as were the owners of coastal California mansions caught in a blaze. For those unfortunate enough to sustain damage from fires, it can leave lasting financial scars in addition to physical and emotional ones.
He added that the primary problem “is the climate has not shown any indication of warming temperatures slowing down. That right there is a problem in and of itself because it changes the amount of snow that you get during the wintertime, changes the amount of snow that then makes its way into reservoirs, thereby replenishing them. So we have these different factors that kind of commingled to bring together this hydrologic situation that is not ideal for us right now."
https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/...-severe-to-exceptional-drought-132508989.html
Meanwhile, states like California have instituted severe water restrictions, though water consumption has continued to rise. On an even grimmer note, low water levels at Lake Mead have threatened hydropower plants and exposed bodies once submerged in the reservoirs.
While conditions may ease slightly as the region enters its summer monsoon season, the outlook remains dry as the region navigates a historic, multi-decade megadrought.
A number of states including California, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Arizona, and tribal nations like the Navajo Nation have all declared drought states of emergency and allocated resources for managing the water crisis.
ince 2000, droughts have cost the U.S. around $160.8 billion, according to the NOAA. That figure jumps to $272 billion when accounting for destructive wildfires that are more prone in arid conditions.
With water already becoming more scarce, the increasing population in the West — and therefore demand for water — has inflamed the situation.
An Economic Innovation Group report using county-level population data found that the trend of people moving to water-starved states has only accelerated during the pandemic.
Inland California, the Mountain West, and eastern Texas saw the greatest growth, and overall, 10 of the top 15 counties for population growth were in the Western U.S: Maricopa County, Arizona (Phoenix), was ranked first, followed by Collin County, Texas, and Riverside County, California.
"Overall, the Sunbelt and the Mountain West continued to outshine the rest of the country. Remote rural counties in eastern Oregon and northern Idaho experienced robust population growth while every single county in Nevada gained population.”
Another EIG study found that an additional 20 million residents could move to drought-stricken counties by 2040. Water managers are already balancing razor-thin water budgets at current population levels.
"With reservoirs at record low levels throughout the West and the effects of sustained drought conditions increasingly being felt from agriculture to development, one of the most far-reaching questions in the United States over the coming decades is whether growth trends will ultimately collide with nature’s ability to sustain such a large influx of people," Daniel Newman, the report's author, wrote.
Fire and water
Doling out water supplies isn't the only issue residents have to contend with.
Suburban neighborhoods sprawling out into more rural areas are creating a more substantial wild-urban interface at the same time as the wildfire season creeps earlier and longer.
In the last month, two Colorado Springs neighborhoods were evacuated due to fires, as were the owners of coastal California mansions caught in a blaze. For those unfortunate enough to sustain damage from fires, it can leave lasting financial scars in addition to physical and emotional ones.
He added that the primary problem “is the climate has not shown any indication of warming temperatures slowing down. That right there is a problem in and of itself because it changes the amount of snow that you get during the wintertime, changes the amount of snow that then makes its way into reservoirs, thereby replenishing them. So we have these different factors that kind of commingled to bring together this hydrologic situation that is not ideal for us right now."
https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/...-severe-to-exceptional-drought-132508989.html
BidenPresident
Verified User
The Hermits Peak fire was devastating. Still only 70% contained after 2 months.
https://nmfireinfo.com/2022/06/13/hermits-peak-and-calf-canyon-fires-june-13-2022-daily-update/
https://nmfireinfo.com/2022/06/13/hermits-peak-and-calf-canyon-fires-june-13-2022-daily-update/
Gondwanaland
Verified User
Yeah it's been pretty bad out here in Colorado. There was some hope early in the year when we got some big storms to build up snowpack, but those stopped much sooner than usual and we're in full drought.
BartenderElite
Verified User
The earth keeps trying to talk to us.
I wish the species waiting to act until it's too late wasn't so predictable.
I wish the species waiting to act until it's too late wasn't so predictable.
Into the Night
Verified User
That fire was started by the federal government.
The SDTC has removed many of it's water collection systems. They have also removed most of their electrical generating capacity, forcing them to use power from Hoover dam more and more, draining Lake Mead.
Soon that dam will no longer be able to produce power, then the SDTC will suffer major blackouts. Atlas Shrugged.
Buzzword fallacy. No such thing. Oh...Washington happens to be getting a lot of rain right now. So is Oregon.
Maybe the SDTC and Colorado should actually build water collection systems.
Argument from randU fallacy. Made up numbers.
Argument from randU fallacy.
Stop destroying your water collection systems.
Self inflicted.
People are moving OUT of the SDTC, fleeing the tyranny there.
People are moving OUT of the SDTC.
Refugees from the SDTC.
People are moving OUT of the SDTC.
Refugees from the SDTC. Oh, and in Nevada in most towns, two people moving in is 'robust growth'.
Water managers have created the situation. Self inflicted.
Reservoirs are destroyed in much of the SDTC.
No. The SDTC destroyed many of its reservoirs.
Which is why people are fleeing the SDTC.
This author obviously hates people.
Stop building in pine forests. Build water collection systems.
It is not possible to measure the temperature of the Earth. No gas or vapor has the capability to warm the Earth.
We had record amounts of snow. That's happened across the West recently too.
You have VERY FEW RESERVOIRS. You removed them.
Self inflicted.
Into the Night
Verified User
Ah. So you are a Gaia worshiper.
Into the Night
Verified User
It is not possible to measure the temperature of the Earth. No gas or vapor has the capability to warm the Earth. You can't create energy out of nothing.
Into the Night
Verified User
...and they destroyed some they already had.
Into the Night
Verified User
So 120% of snow pack is 'drought'. Gotit.
Maybe Colorado should actually collect some of that water.
We can't directly measure quarks, electrons, neutrinos, or exoplanet orbital dynamics either, but we have the tools to indirectly measure them.
No additional energy is created. Atmospheric greenhouse gases have the capacity to trap more thermal radiation within the Earth's lower atmosphere, as opposed to it radiating off the surface and escaping to space.
Hey, Dumas, reservoirs don’t help if there is no water to fill them.
Virtually every river is damned in California, and virtually all the prime locations for dam construction were developed decades ago.
These days it's usually only morons who demand more dams be built. A significant fraction of water in reservoirs is lost to evaporation. That's water lost which cannot be used.
Groundwater banking is typically the current management strategy. Managed recharge of groundwater basins prevents the evaporation of water, and doesn't require expensive dams be built.
With less than 5 percent of world population, the U.S. uses one-third of the world's paper, a quarter of the world's oil, 23 percent of the coal, 27 percent of the aluminum, and 19 percent of the copper
that isn't from GOP policies - that is from a war on poverty, a fiat currency, and politicians making promises to buy votes
to pretend you are the solution is hysterical. your views on redistribution is why we overconsume and why hundreds of thousands line up to break in so we can consume even more compared to our population
It is absurd how much paper we use. Why would we need to with computers and email, etc.? As businesses we should restrict paper billing unless folks pay extra for it, and then we should make it difficult.
one of the greatests checks and balances a society can have is being limited to live somewhat within their means - fiat currency - and being the owner of the global reserve currency - gave us certain benefits - and we took advantage
America has been free of major wars since WW2 and our baby boomer generation put us at maximum work force - yet we are completely incapable of slowing our consumption - and borrowing from the future
any democrats that is honest with themselves will see the problem. America refuses to suffer as others around the world do. If our economy recedes, we will inflate the money supply to get people consuming again. If our housing collapsed, we will prop it up as too big to fail. We refuse to live my the same economic structure as other nations.
In the 21st century, the GOP has held the White House 55 percent of the time, and controlled the House of Reps and Senate ~65 percent of the time.
So in the 21st century, we have largely been living with GOP climate (non)- policies.
Just talking about emissions is both naive, and mathematically incorrect.
Carbon is a mass balance problem; a quantitative summation of emissions and carbon sinks. The goal is carbon neutrality, or net zero emissions. You can't talk just about emissions because that ignores 50 percent of the math needed for mass balance.