July 2022 Drought Report Based on the Palmer Drought Index, severe to extreme drought affected about 33% of the contiguous United States as of the end of July 2022, a decrease of about -3% from last month. About 3% of the contiguous U.S. fell in the severely to extremely wet categories. About 44% of the contiguous U.S. fell in the moderate to extreme drought categories (based on the Palmer Drought Index) at the end of July On a broad scale, the 1980s and 1990s were characterized by unusual wetness with short periods of extensive droughts, the 1930s and 1950s were characterized by prolonged periods of extensive droughts with little wetness, and the first two decades of the 2000s saw extensive drought and extensive wetness (moderate to extreme drought graphic, severe to extreme drought graphic). A file containing the national monthly percent area severely dry and wet from 1900 to present is available for the severe to extreme and moderate to extreme categories. Historical temperature, precipitation, and Palmer drought data from 1895 to present for climate divisions, states, and regions in the contiguous U.S. are available at the Climate Division: Temperature-Precipitation-Drought Data page. These filenames begin with "climdiv". According to the weekly U.S. Drought Monitor (USDM), as of August 2, 2022, 51.39% of the contiguous U.S. (CONUS) (43.16% of the U.S. including Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico) was classified as experiencing moderate to exceptional (D1-D4) drought. https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/monitoring/monthly-report/drought/202207 The Global Drought Monitor The Global Drought Monitor depicts current drought conditions across the globe using a “bottom-up” approach. This means that the drought conditions on each continent are assessed by the Nations of that continent. These “continental Drought Monitors” are then provided to NCEI and merged here into this Global Drought Monitor product. Global drought indices and indicators are also provided as a supplement to help show current conditions. Click the button below to view the full-screen version of the Global Drought Monitor. https://gdis-noaa.hub.arcgis.com/pages/drought-monitoring Droughts in Europe in July 2022: almost half of the EU +UK territory at risk https://joint-research-centre.ec.eu...lmost-half-eu-uk-territory-risk-2022-07-18_en Serious drought hitting Europe, wider world Much of Europe and the Northern Hemisphere is battling either wildfires, low water levels, harvest warnings, water use restrictions or a mixture of all these. DW rounds up the situation. https://www.dw.com/en/serious-drought-hitting-europe-wider-world/a-62786406 China races to alleviate drought, power cuts amid record heatwave SHANGHAI, Aug 17 (Reuters) - China is scrambling to alleviate power shortages and bring more water to the drought-hit basin of the Yangtze river as it battles a record-breaking heatwave by deploying relief funds, seeding clouds and developing new sources of supply. A view of the exposed riverbed of Yangtze river on a hot day in Chongqing, China August 17, 2022. cnsphoto via REUTERS
Lake Mead Continuing a 22-year downward trend, water levels in Lake Mead stand at their lowest since April 1937, when the reservoir was still being filled for the first time. As of July 18, 2022, Lake Mead was filled to just 27 percent of capacity. The largest reservoir in the United States supplies water to millions of people across seven states, tribal lands, and northern Mexico. It now also provides a stark illustration of climate change and a long-term drought that may be the worst in the U.S. West in 12 centuries. The low water level comes at time when 74 percent of nine Western states face some level of drought; 35 percent of the area is in extreme or exceptional drought. In Colorado, location of the headwaters of the Colorado River, 83 percent of the state is now in drought, and the snowpack from last winter was below average in many places. The natural-color images above were acquired on July 6, 2000, and July 3, 2022, by Landsat 7 and Landsat 8. The detailed images below also include a view from Landsat 8 on July 8, 2021 (middle). The light-colored fringes along the shorelines in 2021 and 2022 are mineralized areas of the lakeshore that were formerly underwater when the reservoir was filled closer to capacity. The phenomenon is often referred to as a “bathtub ring.” https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/150111/lake-mead-keeps-dropping
The Colorado River drought is so bad you can see it from space More water cuts are coming as the nation’s largest reservoirs continue to dry up in the worst drought in 1,200 years.
Ironically, there is flooding in much of the South today. But it is too far South to help the water reserves. And the soil is so hard and baked that the water just runs off and causes flash floods.
Are Portions of Washington State in Severe Drought? Today, NOAA released the latest drought update for the U.S., through their Drought Monitor website. . . . NOAA needs to carefully review the approach used for its Drought Monitor graphics and make changes that will lead to a more reliable, useful product.
This thread is intended for scientific facts, not your crackpot nonsense. We don't care what your blogger thinks.
In your piece, Cliff Mass talks about the WEATHER (not the climate) over the period of last October to last January - typically some of the wettest months in WA. In fact, in one of his charts he shows ONE DAY IN JANUARY!!! For his representation of the "Palmer Drought Index" again he uses ONE WEEK IN LAST JANUARY! PLUS he KNOWS that Washington had an exceptionally soggy October 2021 to January. His presenting that as Washington's climate is the biggest BS one could possibly concoct. >> In what way do you think that is a legitimate approach to climatology??? How about moving away from your search for support of you own ideas and start thinking in terms of actual science?
I'll take his word over yours. Clifford F. Mass is an American professor of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Washington. His research focuses on numerical weather modeling and prediction, the role of topography in the evolution of weather systems, regional climate modeling, and the weather of the Pacific Northwest. He is a fellow of the American Meteorological Society, past-president of the Puget Sound American Meteorological Society chapter, and past chair of the College of the Environment College Council. His book The Weather of the Pacific Northwest is one of the best-selling titles from the University of Washington Press.[2] Cliff Mass - Wikipedia
LOL - your view and my view don't count in this. What you are proposing is that something Meteorologist Mass said should be taken over and above the broad consensus of climatologists. And, as I pointed out, his article attempts to use 3 months of ONE YEAR as the totality of his argument about climate!! That's just plain inexcusable.
The IPCC had stated that global warming will not result in an increase in the occurrence and severity of localized drought. This entire thread confuses weather with climate. It’s the same ol’ same ol’.
His ~ 50 year career concerns the totality of mesometeorology and climate. His “crime” is performing fact based research based on evidence instead of blindly accepting the faith based global warming alarmism narrative. Alan Bloom identified and documented this increasing tendency in his classic book “Tht Closing of the American Mind” published in the ‘80’s.
Well, hopefully the climate gets the memo that it's not supposed to be changing. That would certainly be one less thing to worry about, and I'd even be willing to let the denialists have the win if they could just get the climate on board with their outlook.
The climate is always changing. What's questionable is whether CO2, and hence human existence, is driving it. The answer is "no". But that doesn't stop the "climate change" ninnies.
Some parts of US and some parts of Europe are running out of water. There is no ifs or buts about it, and it doesn't matter if the cause is "man made climate change", or just a dry summer. Its the reality. Europe’s rivers run dry as scientists warn drought could be worst in 500 years Crops, power plants, barge traffic, industry and fish populations devastated by parched waterways https://www.theguardian.com/environ...ists-warn-drought-could-be-worst-in-500-years In places, the Loire can now be crossed on foot; France’s longest river has never flowed so slowly. The Rhine is fast becoming impassable to barge traffic. In Italy, the Po is 2 metres lower than normal, crippling crops. Serbia is dredging the Danube. Across Europe, drought is reducing once-mighty rivers to trickles, with potentially dramatic consequences for industry, freight, energy and food production – just as supply shortages and price rises due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine bite. Driven by climate breakdown, an unusually dry winter and spring followed by record-breaking summer temperatures and repeated heatwaves have left Europe’s essential waterways under-replenished and, increasingly, overheated.
It’s called weather and water mismanagement. Global warming is occurring, it started for the tenth time (in the current Holocene period) in the 1880’s, has resulted in an increase in global average temperature of ~ 1 degree Centigrade, and is progressing at (accepting the consensus CO2 climate sensitivity of 3 degrees Centigrade) ~ 0.03 degrees Centigrade per year. BTW global warming will result in increasing precipitation.
The globe is warming. But at completely manageable rates. Global warming is net beneficial. Always had been as the historical record clearly shows.
Regarding the effects of climate change, it really doesn't matter whether it's being driven by mankind or not. We'll have to deal with the fallout either way. Whether we are catalyzing it is certainly an important topic but it is also a separate topic.
So, those European rivers were 'managed' well for 500 years, and now the 'management' is somehow failing......Interesting theory, but fairly hard to believe. I specifically said it doesn't matter if the cause is "man made climate change", or just a dry summer. Its the reality this year. Do droughts come and go? Sure. Its not the first time, but there has been quite a few in past decades compared to the past. Yes, it doesn't help to bicker about the cause.
Correct. We have to deal with the fallout regardless. Focusing on CO2 as a primary driver simply distracts from that.
No rumor: Abstract Processes involved in the generation of hydrological winter drought within the Upper Rhine basin are investigated. Extremely low water stages were mainly documented through hydrological mea- surements (since 180 at Basel, Switzerland. The effect of water released from Alpine reservoirs for power generation was estimated in order to obtain a quasi-homogenous series of “natural flows”. For the period prior to 1808, rocks emerging in rivers and lakes in the case of low water were used along with narrative evidence for assessing extreme events. 29 severe winter droughts are documented since 1540. Such events occurred after a succession of four months with below-average precipitation. A comparison with large-scale seasonal sea-level pressure (SLP) reconstructions revealed that they were often connected to persistent anticyclones centred over Western Europe. Severe winter droughts were relatively rare in the 20th century compared to the former period, which is due to increased winter temperature and precipitation https://www.hist.unibe.ch/e11168/e52524/e69145/e186327/e188630/27_Pfister-al-LowWaters-HSJ06_ger.pdf
Nice image. In fact, a nice image taken from stock photos without any attribution that is all over the place to try and drive things home. However, one thing I noticed immediately, that is not a "real dam". That is a flood control dam. In other words, 99.999% of the time it will always look like that, with no water. Notice, there are no clear bands on the embankment showing previous high water marks? Notice how low the dam walls are? They look to not even be 20 meters tall. That is not a dam made to hold water constantly, only during peak rain and floods. And yes, I know very well what a flood control dam looks like, I practically grew up in one. It actually only fills every 20 years or so, and the rest of the time is just like that. So already I am discounting this, as so many others all over the Internet that have been using this stock image. So gullible they think that an empty flood control dam and basin actually means something.
