DROUGHT

Climate change is having a devastating affect on dry areas of the world and began influencing global drought risk for more than a century ago. Models predict that droughts will become more frequent and severe as temperatures rise, potentially causing food and water shortages, human health impacts, destructive wildfires and conflicts between peoples competing for resources. They project a new round of severe megadroughts, resulting in the driest period in 1,000 years for parts of the U.S., with droughts becoming more frequent and severe.

The United States Drought Monitor update their maps every Thursday and Climate Central has an informative page with graphics and videos.

CURRENT NEWS

The Washington Post

California was hit with 12 feet of snow. Is it enough to ease the drought?

By Joshua Partlow 03/04/23

More than 12 feet of snow has fallen in the Sierra Nevada, shutting down national parks and burying neighborhoods. But the flakes have also felt miraculous, dramatically improving the outlook for California's historic drought....

Newsweek

If we want to save the planet, we have to save the elephants

By Cyril Christo 02/16/23

When CEOs and business leaders arrived in the isolated Swiss town, climate change was on the table. But the absence of conversations about elephants and global biodiversity—crucial components of our ecosystems—were glaring inconsistencies in what…

Gizmodo

California lost 36 million trees to drought last year

By Angely Mercado 02/07/23

Aerial surveys conducted from July 2022 to October 2022 surveyed 39.6 million acres (over 61,000 square miles) of tree canopy across California. The Forest Service found about 2.6 million acres (over 3,100 square miles) of…

Los Angeles Times

The “Law of the River” at the heart of the Colorado River crisis

By Hayley Smith and Ian James 02/03/23

It’s a crisis nearly 100 years in the making: Seven states — all reliant on a single mighty river as a vital source of water — failed to reach an agreement this week on how…

Los Angeles Times

California is alone in battle over Colorado River water cuts

By Ian James 02/02/23

After a key deadline passed this week without an agreement on how to address the Colorado River’s crisis, California is now sharply at odds with six other states over how to take less water from…

Grist

A California town’s wastewater is helping it battle drought

By Naoki Nitta 01/23/23

Standing under a shady tree drooping with pomegranates late last year, Brad Simmons, a retired metal fabricator who has lived in Healdsburg, California, for 57 years, showed off his backyard orchard. Along with the apple,…

AZFamily

How Pinal County farmers are dealing with historic cuts to Arizona’s Colorado River water supply

By Whitney Clark 01/18/23

Farming thousands of acres of alfalfa, Bermuda grass, and more, isn’t just a job for Jace Miller: it’s in his blood. “My great-great-grandfather came and homesteaded in gilbert in 1919 and began farming,” Miller said.…

The Washington Post

Arizona city cuts off a neighborhood’s water supply amid drought

By Joshua Partlow 01/16/23

The survival — or at least the basic sustenance — of hundreds in a desert community amid the horse ranches and golf courses outside Phoenix now rests on a 54-year-old man with a plastic bucket…

NASA

A Look Back: 2022’s Temperature Record

01/12/23

2022 effectively tied for Earth’s 5th warmest year since 1880, and the last 9 consecutive years have been the warmest 9 on record. NASA looks back at how heat was expressed in different ways around…

The New York Times

Arizona Is in a Race to the Bottom of Its Water Wells, With Saudi Arabia’s Help

By Natalie Koch 12/26/22

Arizona’s water is running worryingly low. Amid the worst drought in more than a millennium, which has left communities across the state with barren wells, the state is depleting what remains of its precious groundwater.…

The Washington Post

Amid drought, Arizona contemplates a fraught idea: Piping in water from Mexico

By Joshua Partlow 12/23/22

As Arizona's water supply from the Colorado River dwindles, it is studying a $5 billion project to desalinate ocean water in Mexico and pump it 200 miles across the border....

The Washington Post

Disaster scenarios raise the stakes for Colorado River negotiations

By Joshua Partlow 12/17/22

Those responsible for divvying up the Colorado River's dwindling supply are warning that unprecedented shortages could be coming to farms and cities in the West....

KEY RESOURCES

World Weather Attribution

High temperatures exacerbated by climate change made 2022 Northern Hemisphere droughts more likely

10/05/22

Western Central Europe, North America, China, and other parts of the Northern Hemisphere faced water shortages, extreme heat, and soil moisture drought conditions throughout the summer of 2022

usda.gov

Drought in the Western United States

09/26/22

The U.S. Drought Monitor (USDM) categorizes drought in a region according to soil moisture, streamflow, and precipitation levels. Regional designations can vary and are primarily based on historical weather patterns. Drought can adversely affect many…

Images of change

07/03/22

Disappearing Lake Mead, Nevada-Arizona Border

Climate Change in National Parks

06/06/22

Climate Change Response Program Natural Resource Stewardship and Science. National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior. of glaciers and ice sheets. And of those that remain, most are shrinking at an accelerated rate. These…

Drought in numbers

05/11/22

The report, an authoritative compendium of drought-related information and data, helps inform negotiations of one of several decisions by UNCCD’s 196 member states, to be issued 20 May at the conclusion of COP15.

Western Drought 2020-2022

05/10/22

Climate change is a major contributor to the prolonged and intensifying drought that has impacted the western US since early 2020, as well as the underlying megadrought that has been ongoing since 2000.[1] Rising temperatures…

What the Western US megadrought tells us about climate change

03/09/22

A 22-year megadrought has made the Western United States the driest it has been since at least the year 800, according to a new study. A megadrought is essentially a prolonged drought that lasts for…

Explainer: ‘Desertification’ and the role of climate change

08/06/19

While the term may bring to mind the windswept sand dunes of the Sahara or the vast salt pans of the Kalahari, it’s an issue that reaches far beyond those living in and around the…

National Weather Service – Drought Information

09/11/19

The U.S. Drought monitor is an overview of drought types and drought impacts updated weekly based upon a combination of sources.

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MORE NEWS

Reuters

Utah’s Great Salt Lake is drying out, threatening ecological, economic disaster

By Nathan Frandino 07/14/22

Utah's Great Salt Lake dropped to its lowest recorded level this month amid a two-decade drought, a grim milestone as researchers and politicians point to grave threats to wildlife and people along its receding shores.

Gizmodo

Shocking Photos Show Lake Mead’s Historically Low Water Levels

By Molly Taft 07/12/22

Stranded boats, desiccated fish, and no water on cracked ground that once made a shoreline. That’s the new business-as-usual for Lake Mead, where the West’s punishing drought and chronic water overuse have combined to render…

NOAA

June 2022: U.S. dominated by remarkable heat, dryness

07/11/22

June kicked off a very warm and dry start to meteorological summer for the U.S., according to experts from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information.

Los Angeles Times

California deepens water cuts to cope with drought, hitting thousands of farms

By Ian James and Others 07/07/22

California regulators have begun curtailing the water rights of many farms and irrigation districts along the Sacramento River, forcing growers to stop diverting water from the river and its tributaries.

Los Angeles Times

What aridification, the ‘great drying,’ means to California and the West

By James Rainey 06/30/22

Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It’s Thursday, June 30. I’m state enterprise reporter Jim Rainey, checking in from the San Gabriel Valley.

The Washington Post

Extreme heat and humidity kill thousands of cattle in Kansas

By Amy Cheng 06/16/22

Thousands of cattle in Kansas have died in recent days due to high heat and humidity, dealing a blow to one of the country’s leading cattle production states as the industry grapples with extreme weather…

The Washington Post

These maps illustrate the seriousness of the western drought

By Kasha Patel and Lauren Tierney 06/16/22

Much of the West is already experiencing severe to exceptional drought, but scorching summer temperatures will dry out the parched landscape even more...

Civil Eats

A Wild, Windy Spring Is Creating a Soil Erosion Nightmare for Farmers

By Virginia Gewin 06/08/22

When he saw a roiling thunder bank of black clouds blowing into Salem, South Dakota, last month, farmer Kurt Stiefvater thought it would take 20 minutes to reach his property. It took five. “I couldn’t…

The New York Times

As the Great Salt Lake dries up, Utah faces an ‘environmental nuclear bomb’

By Christopher Flavelle 06/07/22

Climate change and rapid population growth are shrinking the lake, creating a bowl of toxic dust that could poison the air around Salt Lake City.

Medium

A Day Without Rain Is Like 22 Years In America’s Southwest

By Arthur Keith 06/04/22

The Southwest is melting down. Between the heat and lack of moisture, it’s become an inferno. This year is already worse than last year, which was a catastrophe. So should we call this catastrophe-plus?

BBC

Drought-stricken US warned of looming ‘dead pool’

By Regan Morris & Sophie Long 06/04/22

Sitting on the Arizona-Nevada border near Las Vegas, Lake Mead - formed by the creation of the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River - is the largest reservoir in the United States and provides water…

watereducation.org

Colorado River: Serving as the “lifeline of the Southwest”

06/03/22

Serving as the “lifeline of the Southwest,” and one of the most heavily regulated rivers in the world, the Colorado River provides water to 35 million people and more than 4 million acres of farmland…

PBS NEWS HOUR

Megadrought causes perilously low water levels at Lake Mead

06/03/22

The megadrought currently choking the western United States is the worst drought in the region in more than 1,000 years. It's having an enormous impact across many states and on several major reservoirs including Lake…

Gizmodo

California’s Drought Is So Bad, It’s Going to Slash Hydropower

By Angely Mercado 06/03/22

There are already signs of a difficult summer to come. Outlooks from the U.S. Energy Information Administration found that hydropower would make up only 8% of the state’s total power generation, down from 15%, if…

Yale.edu

The Vanishing Rio Grande: Warming Takes a Toll on a Legendary River

By Jim Robbins 06/02/22

Hiking through the emerald green canopy of the bosque, or riverside cottonwood forest, near downtown Albuquerque, Tricia Snyder, an advocate for WildEarth Guardians, believes zero hour has arrived for the Rio Grande. Though the river…

The New York Times

A ‘Perfect Recipe for Extreme Wildfire’: New Mexico’s Record-Breaking, Early Fire Season

By Tim Wallace and Nadja Popovich 06/01/22

Fueled by abnormally dry, warm conditions and spread by strong winds, wildfires have burned more than 600,000 acres across New Mexico this spring — making it one of the worst fire years in the state’s…

Yahoo News

Las Vegas to save 10 billion gallons of water with new plan amid megadrought

06/01/22

Millions of people in southern California are facing new water restrictions thanks to a megadrought crippling the Southwest. But southern Nevada has been conserving water for years. The area’s latest move is to tear out…

CNN Business

California drought could cut state’s hydropower in half this summer

By Matt Egan 06/01/22

The severe drought in California threatens to significantly undermine the state's ability to generate hydroelectric power, raising costs for families and driving up planet-warming emissions, according to a federal government forecast.

Energywire - E&E News

Southwest megadrought pushes hydropower to the brink

By Jason Plautz 05/31/22

As the megadrought gripping the Southwest stretches into its third decade, energy providers are preparing for a future where hydropower is no longer a reliable renewable resource.

Yahoo News

Lake Mead could still tank in 2023, despite all we’ve done to save it

By Joanna Allhands 05/20/22

Whatever buffer we may have had (or thought we had) at Lake Mead, it is quickly disappearing. The May 24-month study makes that plain. The monthly, two-year forecast from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has…

Yahoo News

The American West should brace for a blackout summer, electricity regulator warns

By Tristan Bove 05/20/22

Electricity shortages and blackouts are increasingly possible for the American West this summer, as an electrical operator warns of “out-of-the-ordinary” conditions.

The Washington Post

The Colorado River is in crisis, and it’s getting worse every day

By Erin Patrick O'Connor 05/14/22

It is a powerhouse: a 1,450-mile waterway that stretches from the Rocky Mountains to the Sea of Cortez, serving 40 million people in seven U.S. states, 30 federally recognized tribes and Mexico. It hydrates 5…

Los Angeles Times

Far from Lake Powell, drought punishes another Western dam

By Sammy Roth 05/12/22

Water is flowing through two of three hydropower turbines in a blockish building at the base of Flaming Gorge Dam, so I can feel the floor buzzing — vibrations pulsating through my body — as…

Independent

California’s biggest reservoirs at ‘critically low levels’ before dry season

By Ethan Freedman 05/10/22

Water levels in California’s two biggest reservoirs have dropped to “critically low levels” as the state faces another dry summer amid ongoing drought, according to a new report.

Reuters

Wildfire threatens ‘cultural genocide’ in New Mexico villages

By Andrew Hay 05/09/22

Miguel Gandert does not know whether his family's 19th-century log home has been burned by a New Mexico wildfire, but he fears the blaze could destroy an Indo-Hispano mountain culture far older than the United…

The Washington Post

Facing a new climate reality, Southern California lawns could wither

By Joshua Partlow 05/09/22

From behind the wheel of his work van, Fernando Gonzalez took in the immaculate front yard amid the arid and affluent hills north of Los Angeles. The red and white rosebushes. The loquat and pear…

The Spectrum

Colorado River drought may be the ‘new normal’ and living with it will be costly, leaders say

By Brandon Loomis 05/07/22

Arizona needs to rapidly invest in both water conservation and new supplies to offset losses from a shrinking Colorado River, the state’s top water officials warned Friday.

Los Angeles Times

As drought crisis deepens, government will release less water from Colorado River reservoir

By Ian James 05/03/22

After years of severe drought compounded by climate change, the water level in Lake Powell, the second-largest reservoir on the Colorado River, has dropped to just 24% of full capacity and is continuing to decline…

The New York Times

Is that an outlaw lawn? Las Vegas has a new approach to saving water

By Henry Fountain 05/03/22

With drought and growth taking a toll on the Colorado River, the source of 90 percent of the region’s water, a new law mandates the removal of turf, patch by patch.

CNN

Lake Mead plummets to unprecedented low, exposing original 1971 water intake valve

By Stephanie Elam 04/29/22

The West is in the grips of a climate change-fueled megadrought, and Lake Mead -- the largest manmade reservoir in the country and a source of water for millions of people -- has fallen to…

Los Angeles Times

Southern California ‘cannot afford green lawns’ as drought forces unprecedented water cuts

By Hayley Smith , Ian James & Others 04/28/22

Millions of Southern California residents are bracing for less water and many brown lawns as drought and climate change leave a large swath of the region with a growing water shortage.

Axios

California’s driest start to the year sparks water, wildfire concerns

By Andrew Freedman 04/12/22

California is entering the dry season with its water resources in a precarious position, having seen its driest start to the year on record. A heat wave last week sent temperatures soaring into the 90s…

Wired

Drought Is Threatening Hydropower in the Southwestern US

By Doug Johnson 04/09/22

NEWS THAT LAKE Powell, a reservoir on the border of Arizona and Utah, is slowly but surely drying up has spread far and wide. Behind the 1,320-megawatt Glen Canyon Dam and power station, Lake Powell…

National Science Foundation

The longest drought, redefined

04/06/22

Maps of the American West have featured ever darker shades of red over the past two decades. The colors illustrate the unprecedented drought blighting the region. In some areas, conditions have blown past severe and…

Pacific Institute

Snowpack Report Underscores Need for Transformative Changes to Address Record-Setting California Drought

By Heather Cooley, Dr. Peter Gleick and Others 04/01/22

The severe California drought is continuing for a third year, and there will be major consequences for ecosystems, agriculture, and urban and rural water users across California.

Inside Climate News

As Lake Powell Hits Landmark Low, Arizona Looks to a $1 Billion Investment and Mexican Seawater to Slake its Thirst

By Aydali Campa 03/23/22

During his last year in office, Gov. Doug Ducey is trying to create a legacy of water security in drought-stricken Arizona. But his most ambitious effort in that quest could end up being in Mexico.

AP News

Hot spring forecast: Drought deepens in West, flooding ebbs

By Seth Borenstein 03/23/22

There’s no relief in sight for the West’s record-shattering megadrought, which will likely only deepen this spring, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in its seasonal outlook Thursday. But central and eastern states should…

The Washington Post

California’s drought is strangling the farming industry

By Scott Wilson 03/21/22

Westside Elementary opened its doors nearly a century ago here in the San Joaquin Valley, among the most productive agricultural regions on earth. As recently as 1995, nearly 500 students filled its classrooms. Now 160…

Gizmodo

Lake Powell Is in Big Trouble

By Molly Taft 03/09/22

Lake Powell, on the border of Utah and Arizona, is a crucial reservoir along the Colorado River, part of a system that supplies water for 40 million people in multiple states across the West. As…

Los Angeles Times

As drought lingers, larger and more destructive wildfires pose new threats to water supply

By Hayley Smith 02/21/22

Already diminished by drought and extreme heat, California’s water supply will face yet another peril as wildfires continue to incinerate ever larger areas of forested land, according to new research.

The Guardian

US west ‘megadrought’ is worst in at least 1,200 years, new study says

By Gabrielle Canon 02/15/22

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…

Scientific American

Western ‘Megadrought’ Is the Worst in 1,200 Years

By Chelsea Harvey 02/15/22

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…

Nexus Media

Drought in American West worst since Charlemagne

02/15/22

The American West is experiencing the worst drought in at least 1,200 years, new research shows, and climate change is responsible for 42 percent of its severity. The drought, which began in 2000 and has…

NPR

Study finds Western megadrought is the worst in 1,200 years

By Nathan Rott 02/14/22

Shrunk reservoirs. Depleted aquifers. Low rivers. Raging wildfires. It's no secret that the Western U.S. is in a severe drought. New research published Monday shows just how extreme the situation has become...

The Mercury News

Proposed ballot measure to build more California dams, desalination projects likely to be withdrawn due to lack of money and signatures

By Paul Rogers 01/27/22

Despite California’s drought, a proposed statewide November ballot measure to speed up the construction of new dams and other large water projects — and provide billions of dollars to fund them — has fallen short…

The Washington Post

Climate change fuels a water rights conflict built on over a century of broken promises

By Nick Kirkpatrick and others 11/22/21

The simple way to think about this crisis: There’s no longer enough water to go around to meet the needs of farmers and Native American populations as well as fish and birds.

The Washington Post

Cloud seeding gains steam as West faces worsening droughts

By Maddie Stone 11/21/21

As the first winter storms rolled through this month, a King Air C90 turboprop aircraft contracted by the hydropower company Idaho Power took to the skies over southern Idaho to make it snow.

Los Angeles Times

California records driest year in a century

By Laura Anaya-Morga 10/18/21

In a year of both extreme heat and extreme drought, California has reported its driest water year in terms of precipitation in a century, and experts fear the coming 12 months could be even worse.…

The New York Times

In Arizona, Drought Ignites Tensions and Threatens Traditions Among the Hopi

By Simon Romero 10/02/21

On the bone-dry plateau where the Hopi people have lived for well over a thousand years, Robinson Honani pulled his truck to the side of a dirt road and pointed to a carcass. “This is…

NOAA

Even small additional increases in greenhouse gases will make decades-long “megadroughts” in the Southwest more common

By Michon Scott and Rebecca Lindsey 09/27/21

At the dawn of the 21st century, drought descended on southwestern North America. Two decades later, the drought continues. Recent NOAA-funded research found that even small additional increases in greenhouse gas emissions will make such…

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