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My naive brain can't compute how drought and global warming go together. If we assume that water is trapped within the atmosphere and can't drift off into spac
by omilu 12y ago
My naive brain can't compute how drought and global warming go together. If we assume that water is trapped within the atmosphere and can't drift off into space, then won't global warming just heat up the oceans, causing more precipitation? It seems like global warming is the cure for drought not the cause? It's like a giant desalination system for free.
- arjunnarayan 12y agoIt changes where the rain happens, and all our infrastructure is set up to take advantage of local rain that based on current weather patterns. If the system changes such that 90% of the rain is falling somewhere in the middle of the Pacific ocean, that's not very useful to us.
- hyperbovine 12y agoIn California, rains happen in the winter and crops (mostly) grow in the summer. The Sierra Nevada snowpack is the "bank" that stores this precipitation for 3-4 months until it is needed to grow food in the Central Valley. If temps are too warm for the snow to persist, that water is essentially lost unless it is stored in dams. So, climate change is a huge loss for us.
- lrajlich 12y agoThe cause would be due to weather patterns changing - For example, we've currently got a drought in CA due to a high pressure zone being parked off of California for last 2 years in winter (the "ridiculously resilient ridge") and if the formation of this ridge is aided by higher sea or land temps (this is not proven but speculated), then certainly drought can be a result