5 ms·

Is it really a drought only in the West? How is the rest of the globe handling it? I was under the impression that rainfall has beeen at very low levels everywh

Is it really a drought only in the West? How is the rest of the globe handling it? I was under the impression that rainfall has beeen at very low levels everywhere.

atwood22 4y ago
Northeast rainfall is more-or-less at normal levels.
- eckmLJE 4y ago
  I believe Massachusetts is suffering critical drought: https://www.mass.gov/info-details/drought-status https://www.mass.gov/info-details/drought-status
  - dugmartin 4y ago
    I've lived in Western Mass for 20+ years and this summer has been bone dry. Most of the grass in my yard is dead (which never happens) and our town (feed by wells) has had a water restriction order in place for most of the summer.
    - foobarian 4y ago
      It's been bad enough I'm starting to wonder about cisterns/rain barrels to save water for the dry season.
      - dugmartin 4y ago
        I'm hoping this is just an isolated pattern. Two or three years ago (not quite sure) was so wet though that it took two months to stain my deck (waiting for it to dry out after powerwashing it and then waiting for the rains to stop).
        foobarian 4y ago
        Another idea I'm entertaining is a DIY well (thanks to our pretty accessible water table) for watering the lawn. It's not clear how cool the town will be with this but worth exploring. :-)
  - thehappypm 4y ago
    Yes but you have to keep in mind that droughts are really different in the northeast. Our reservoirs are all over 90% full. We like them at 100%, but it really isn’t all that unusual to have dry spells in July and August. People are conserving water right now because it’s the right thing to do, but nobody thinks that this is going to extend too far into the fall
- ed312 4y ago
  Northeast US is in a mild to mid level drought depending on where you live. Higher temps are causing more evaporation and consequently more water usage (also rising population).
  - thehappypm 4y ago
    Does the northeast have much of a rising population?
jeffbee 4y ago
Can you really have a global drought? It seems like all the airborne water has to land somewhere, and climate change is increasing the water content of the atmosphere.
- Dobbs 4y ago
  Would not a drought that is affecting large percentages of populations worldwide not be considered a 'global' drought even if it isn't everyone?
- xvedejas 4y ago
  If it lands mainly in the oceans, then effectively yes. (I don't know enough to say if there's a mechanism that would do this everywhere or most places)
  - giraffe_lady 4y ago
    There is - it's the el nino / la nina ENSO cycle. I think other people are right that the rain has to go somewhere but that thing can and has caused droughts over effectively the entire populated world. There was a world drought in the 1870s that badly affected brazil, northern africa, india, and northern china.
- sosull 4y ago
  A lot of the water in the west comes from snowpack. But there's not going to be much snow anymore, hence there'll be less water.
  - baggy_trough 4y ago
    That doesn't follow because rain fills reservoirs the same as snow. One difference, though, is that snow releases as it melts during the spring/summer.
    - ivalm 4y ago
      Snow is localised and melts into captured streams. It gets refilled because high alt + low temp preferentially causes rainfall/fog that replenishes the snowpack. If fewer rain cloud condense on the peak then it just rains more dispersed which leads to much less efficient capture (some absorbed by the ground, some rains over ocean, evaporation is faster when you have water spread over large area so fraction of time spent in liquid form is smaller, etc).
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
foolfoolz 4y ago
it’s a combination of drought and over use. they like to report on drought but we keep using more water each year
- kspacewalk2 4y ago
  Just watched a DW documentary the other day on droughts and climate change, focusing on California for some time without ever mentioning agriculture. Sure, restaurants in Mendocino have to close because they can't operate bathrooms, let's mention that. Let's also mention that it takes a gallon of water to produce a single almond, that 80% of the worldwide supply is grown in California, and such insanely water-intensive farming is still doing just dandy while people elsewhere in the state are keeping track of toilet flushes.
AnotherGoodName 4y ago
Australia's east coast has had insane and unrelenting rainfall all year. This is due to La Nina which causes the moisture to be directed to Australia's east coast. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-16/nsw-queensland-sydney-weather-rain-flood-records/101238094 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-16/nsw-queensland-sydney...
- buscoquadnary 4y ago
  It's actually interesting I remember people talking a lot about La Nina and El Nino back in the 90's, I didn't understand a lot of it back then because I was younger but it seems like no one talks about that, or the ozone, or any of these other major weather systems, or cycles anymore. Any change in weather is lumped into "climate change" I'm not saying I'm a denier, but I am just wondering how many other weather systems happen on decade long cycles that should also be considered or investigated?
  - tezzer 4y ago
    Nobody talks about ozone because global cooperation led by science and public policy fixed the hole. Come to think of it, maybe we should talk about it more.
nrdgrrrl 4y ago
failTide 4y ago
It seems likely that hundred-year-long droughts are very common in California. If you've ever seen Lake Tenaya in Yosemite, you may notice some dead trees sticking out the surface... Those trees are from a drought period in the Middle Ages [1] when the lake was much lower and totally fry in some spots - enough for pines to grow. Those deadheads are about 1000 years old! Highly recommend kayaking that lake. [1] https://tripatini.com/profiles/blogs/yosemite-s-secrets-how-deep-is-tenaya-lake https://tripatini.com/profiles/blogs/yosemite-s-secrets-how-...
droobles 4y ago
Has been a really rainy summer in northern Missouri, USA, at least for this last half of it.
soperj 4y ago
Pacific Northwest has a had a very rainy spring/summer, very cool as well.
twawaaay 4y ago
Global warming does not mean everywhere gets hotter. Global warming means: Entire planet gets hotter ON AVERAGE, Some places will get hotter, some will get drier, but some can also get wetter or colder. In essence, warming will cause weather patterns to change. We will get a period of changing weather and then the system may stabilise with a set of new patterns that are different from current ones. Whatever happens, it will be very costly to humanity. Our current existence, for example placement of population centers, how we live, how our houses are built, how we produce our food -- it all depends on weather patterns being the way they are now. In particular, it is possible that Europe will get colder soon. If the Gulfstream collapses, the masses of warm water that bring heat and humidity to north Atlantic will cease. While it is not entirely clear what is going to happen, it is possible we are going to get much more arctic air and possible that European climate gets drier.
- onlyrealcuzzo 4y ago
  Weather always changes. Global warming means the planet gets hotter on average. It does not mean every place gets hotter. That's pretty much it. "Climate change" is kind of a dumb phrase IMO. The climate always changes. Change is inevitable. It's fine. Unidirectional change to warmer temperatures (global warming) is probably not fine.
bart_spoon 4y ago
In my neck of the Midwest, we've had a dry couple of months, but generally the last few years have seen precipitation levels at or above the yearly average.
irrational 4y ago
In the Pacific Northwest we had the rainiest spring in a long time this year. Typically the rain up here is more of a continuous drizzle, but during the spring it started raining hard and didn’t let up like it normally does. Our rivers reached the lower flood stages from too much rain.
koheripbal 4y ago
East coast, for example, has no drought.

Is it really a drought only in the West? How is the rest of the globe handling it? I was under the impression that rainfall has beeen at very low levels everywhere.

atwood22 4y ago

Northeast rainfall is more-or-less at normal levels.

eckmLJE 4y ago
I believe Massachusetts is suffering critical drought: https://www.mass.gov/info-details/drought-status https://www.mass.gov/info-details/drought-status
- dugmartin 4y ago
  I've lived in Western Mass for 20+ years and this summer has been bone dry. Most of the grass in my yard is dead (which never happens) and our town (feed by wells) has had a water restriction order in place for most of the summer.
  - foobarian 4y ago
    It's been bad enough I'm starting to wonder about cisterns/rain barrels to save water for the dry season.
    - dugmartin 4y ago
      I'm hoping this is just an isolated pattern. Two or three years ago (not quite sure) was so wet though that it took two months to stain my deck (waiting for it to dry out after powerwashing it and then waiting for the rains to stop).
      - foobarian 4y ago
        Another idea I'm entertaining is a DIY well (thanks to our pretty accessible water table) for watering the lawn. It's not clear how cool the town will be with this but worth exploring. :-)
- thehappypm 4y ago
  Yes but you have to keep in mind that droughts are really different in the northeast. Our reservoirs are all over 90% full. We like them at 100%, but it really isn’t all that unusual to have dry spells in July and August. People are conserving water right now because it’s the right thing to do, but nobody thinks that this is going to extend too far into the fall
ed312 4y ago
Northeast US is in a mild to mid level drought depending on where you live. Higher temps are causing more evaporation and consequently more water usage (also rising population).
- thehappypm 4y ago
  Does the northeast have much of a rising population?

jeffbee 4y ago

Can you really have a global drought? It seems like all the airborne water has to land somewhere, and climate change is increasing the water content of the atmosphere.

Dobbs 4y ago
Would not a drought that is affecting large percentages of populations worldwide not be considered a 'global' drought even if it isn't everyone?
xvedejas 4y ago
If it lands mainly in the oceans, then effectively yes. (I don't know enough to say if there's a mechanism that would do this everywhere or most places)
- giraffe_lady 4y ago
  There is - it's the el nino / la nina ENSO cycle. I think other people are right that the rain has to go somewhere but that thing can and has caused droughts over effectively the entire populated world. There was a world drought in the 1870s that badly affected brazil, northern africa, india, and northern china.
sosull 4y ago
A lot of the water in the west comes from snowpack. But there's not going to be much snow anymore, hence there'll be less water.
- baggy_trough 4y ago
  That doesn't follow because rain fills reservoirs the same as snow. One difference, though, is that snow releases as it melts during the spring/summer.
  - ivalm 4y ago
    Snow is localised and melts into captured streams. It gets refilled because high alt + low temp preferentially causes rainfall/fog that replenishes the snowpack. If fewer rain cloud condense on the peak then it just rains more dispersed which leads to much less efficient capture (some absorbed by the ground, some rains over ocean, evaporation is faster when you have water spread over large area so fraction of time spent in liquid form is smaller, etc).

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

foolfoolz 4y ago

it’s a combination of drought and over use. they like to report on drought but we keep using more water each year

kspacewalk2 4y ago
Just watched a DW documentary the other day on droughts and climate change, focusing on California for some time without ever mentioning agriculture. Sure, restaurants in Mendocino have to close because they can't operate bathrooms, let's mention that. Let's also mention that it takes a gallon of water to produce a single almond, that 80% of the worldwide supply is grown in California, and such insanely water-intensive farming is still doing just dandy while people elsewhere in the state are keeping track of toilet flushes.

AnotherGoodName 4y ago

Australia's east coast has had insane and unrelenting rainfall all year. This is due to La Nina which causes the moisture to be directed to Australia's east coast. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-16/nsw-queensland-sydney-weather-rain-flood-records/101238094 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-16/nsw-queensland-sydney...

buscoquadnary 4y ago
It's actually interesting I remember people talking a lot about La Nina and El Nino back in the 90's, I didn't understand a lot of it back then because I was younger but it seems like no one talks about that, or the ozone, or any of these other major weather systems, or cycles anymore. Any change in weather is lumped into "climate change" I'm not saying I'm a denier, but I am just wondering how many other weather systems happen on decade long cycles that should also be considered or investigated?
- tezzer 4y ago
  Nobody talks about ozone because global cooperation led by science and public policy fixed the hole. Come to think of it, maybe we should talk about it more.

nrdgrrrl 4y ago

failTide 4y ago

It seems likely that hundred-year-long droughts are very common in California. If you've ever seen Lake Tenaya in Yosemite, you may notice some dead trees sticking out the surface... Those trees are from a drought period in the Middle Ages [1] when the lake was much lower and totally fry in some spots - enough for pines to grow. Those deadheads are about 1000 years old! Highly recommend kayaking that lake. [1] https://tripatini.com/profiles/blogs/yosemite-s-secrets-how-deep-is-tenaya-lake https://tripatini.com/profiles/blogs/yosemite-s-secrets-how-...

droobles 4y ago

Has been a really rainy summer in northern Missouri, USA, at least for this last half of it.

soperj 4y ago

Pacific Northwest has a had a very rainy spring/summer, very cool as well.

twawaaay 4y ago

Global warming does not mean everywhere gets hotter. Global warming means: Entire planet gets hotter ON AVERAGE, Some places will get hotter, some will get drier, but some can also get wetter or colder. In essence, warming will cause weather patterns to change. We will get a period of changing weather and then the system may stabilise with a set of new patterns that are different from current ones. Whatever happens, it will be very costly to humanity. Our current existence, for example placement of population centers, how we live, how our houses are built, how we produce our food -- it all depends on weather patterns being the way they are now. In particular, it is possible that Europe will get colder soon. If the Gulfstream collapses, the masses of warm water that bring heat and humidity to north Atlantic will cease. While it is not entirely clear what is going to happen, it is possible we are going to get much more arctic air and possible that European climate gets drier.

onlyrealcuzzo 4y ago
Weather always changes. Global warming means the planet gets hotter on average. It does not mean every place gets hotter. That's pretty much it. "Climate change" is kind of a dumb phrase IMO. The climate always changes. Change is inevitable. It's fine. Unidirectional change to warmer temperatures (global warming) is probably not fine.

bart_spoon 4y ago

In my neck of the Midwest, we've had a dry couple of months, but generally the last few years have seen precipitation levels at or above the yearly average.

irrational 4y ago

In the Pacific Northwest we had the rainiest spring in a long time this year. Typically the rain up here is more of a continuous drizzle, but during the spring it started raining hard and didn’t let up like it normally does. Our rivers reached the lower flood stages from too much rain.

koheripbal 4y ago

East coast, for example, has no drought.