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February 14, 2022 06:45 pm

Study Finds Western Megadrought is the Worst in 1,200 Years

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. NPR: The Western U.S. and Northern Mexico are experiencing their driest period in at least 1,200 years, according to the new study published in the journal Nature Climate Change. The last comparable -- though not as severe -- multi-decade megadrought occurred in the 1500s, when the West was still largely inhabited by American Indian tribes. Today, the region is home to tens of millions of people, massive agricultural centers and some of the fastest-growing cities in the U.S. -- all in an area where there's less water available than there was in the past, partially due to human-caused climate change. "We have a society that's relying on there being the amount of water there was in the 1900's," said the study's lead author Park Williams, a bioclimatologist at the University of California, Los Angeles. "But now with the number of water molecules available to us declining, it really is time for us to get real about how much water there is for us to use." Williams looked at tree-ring data from thousands of sites to conduct the research. They sampled data collected from live trees, dead trees and wood beams preserved at Native American archeological sites. The tree rings gave Williams an insight into drought events dating back to the year 800 AD, around the same time Charlemagne was being crowned Emperor of Rome. He identified four other megadroughts in that time period, the most notable being a 23-year drought that ended in the late 1500's. There were hopes during a wet 2019 that the current megadrought was following a similar pattern, Williams said. "And then from summer 2020 through all of 2021, it was just exceptionally dry across the West...indicating that this drought is nowhere near done."

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