Archive for December, 2011

Drought the new normal over much of North America

Sunday, December 11th, 2011

Drought over North America
Drought over North America with a 2.5°C increase. Almost no one lives today in areas that will become wetter.

Analysts
at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, found,

[M]odels showed that the normal state for much of the continental United States and Mexico in the mid- to late-21st century would be conditions considered severe to extreme drought by today’s standards. Likewise, even though most of the simulations project precipitation increases in Canada, they show that mild and moderate droughts would also be a normal occurrence.

Even with precipitation increases, evaporation increases will move some areas of North America into drought.

Best guess is that with high emissions, we will reach a 4°C increase by 2070s, possible as early as 2060.

Texas drought
Texas drought information goes back to 1895.