In the eye of a mega-drought: Researchers warn US should prepare for ‘unprecedented drought conditions’ unlike anything in past 1,000 years
‘Since the turn of this century, the US south-west has spent more than a decade in drought. Last year was the warmest on record in California, which is in the middle of its driest spell for more than 400 years. But according to a new scientific study, that’s nothing compared to what comes next.
In the paper, published by the journal Science Advances, researchers from Nasa and Columbia and Cornell universities warn that a vast swathe of the US, including the south-west states and the central plains, should prepare for “unprecedented drought conditions” unlike anything in the past 1,000 years.
Within 35 years, the region’s millennia-long natural cycle of droughts and occasional rainfall is likely to bring an end to the relative dampness of the last century. The effects of that drying, the scientists warn, would be exacerbated by man-made climate change.’
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