<html><head></head><body><div class="ydp159c14e8yahoo-style-wrap" style="font-family: garamond, new york, times, serif; font-size: 16px;"><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><font face="serif" size="4"><span style="caret-color: rgb(192, 0, 0);"><b>See the link to the actual study at the end of this message.</b></span></font></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><font face="serif" size="4"><span style="caret-color: rgb(192, 0, 0);"><b>TS </b></span></font></div><div style="font-family: garamond, new york, times, serif; font-size: 16px;"><b style="color: rgb(38, 40, 42); font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><i><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:serif;color:#C00000;"><br></span></i></b></div><div style="font-family: garamond, new york, times, serif; font-size: 16px;"><b style="color: rgb(38, 40, 42); font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><i><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:serif;color:#C00000;">A vast region of the western United States, extending from California, Arizona and New Mexico north to Oregon and Idaho, is in the grips of the first climate change-induced megadrought
observed in the past 1,200 years, a study shows. The finding means the phenomenon is no longer a threat for millions to worry about in the future, but is already here.</span></i></b><br></div></div><div id="ydp52dc2b47yahoo_quoted_7175657494" class="ydp52dc2b47yahoo_quoted"><div style="font-family:'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;color:#26282a;"><div><div id="ydp52dc2b47yiv6704024068"><div><div class="ydp52dc2b47yiv6704024068WordSection1">
<p style="margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:13.5pt;margin-left:0in;vertical-align:baseline;outline:0px;">
<b><i><u><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:serif;color:#C00000;">The megadrought has emerged while thirsty, expanding cities are on a collision course with the water demands of farmers and with environmental interests, posing nightmare scenarios
for water managers in fast-growing states</span></u></i></b><b><i><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:serif;color:#C00000;">.</span></i></b></p>
<p style="margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:13.5pt;margin-left:0in;vertical-align:baseline;outline:0px;">
<b><i><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:serif;color:#C00000;">A megadrought is broadly defined as a severe drought that occurs across a broad region for a long duration, typically multiple decades.</span></i></b></p>
<p style="margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:13.5pt;margin-left:0in;vertical-align:baseline;outline:0px;">
<b><i><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:serif;color:#C00000;">Unlike historical megadroughts triggered by natural climate cycles, emissions of heat-trapping gases from human activities have contributed to the current one, the study finds. Warming
temperatures and increasing evaporation, along with earlier spring snowmelt, have pushed the Southwest into its second-worst drought in more than a millennium of observations.</span></i></b></p>
<p class="ydp52dc2b47yiv6704024068MsoNormal" style="vertical-align:baseline;"><b><span style="font-size:20.0pt;font-family:Gothic sans-serif;color:#6B6B6B;"> </span></b></p>
<p class="ydp52dc2b47yiv6704024068MsoNormal" style="vertical-align:baseline;"><b><span style="font-size:20.0pt;font-family:Gothic sans-serif;color:#6B6B6B;">Washington Post</span></b></p>
<p class="ydp52dc2b47yiv6704024068MsoNormal" style="vertical-align:baseline;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Gothic sans-serif;color:#6B6B6B;"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/weather/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><b><span style="color:#1955A5;text-decoration:none;">Capital
Weather Gang</span></b></a></span></p>
<h1 style="margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:6.0pt;margin-left:0in;vertical-align:baseline;outline:0px;display:inline-block;word-spacing:-.02em;">
<span style="font-size:28.0pt;font-family:serif;">The western U.S. is locked in the grips of the first human-caused megadrought, study finds</span><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Gothic sans-serif;"> </span></h1>
<h2 style="margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:15.0pt;margin-left:0in;vertical-align:baseline;">
<span style="font-family:Gothic sans-serif;color:#5A5A5A;">Only one drought in the past 1,200 years comes close to the ongoing, global warming-driven event</span></h2>
<p class="ydp52dc2b47yiv6704024068MsoNormal" style="vertical-align:baseline;"><a name="VPRGVGCELQI6VKTKBA6QDM7NDA"></a><span style="font-size:14.5pt;font-family:Gothic sans-serif;color:#111111;"><img border="0" style="width: 100%; max-width: 800px;" id="ydp52dc2b47yiv6704024068Picture_x0020_5" src="cid:0be92f2f-7037-b0b0-384c-ad335a2ece97@yahoo.com"><br>
</span><span class="ydp52dc2b47yiv6704024068pb-caption"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Gothic sans-serif;color:#6E6E6E;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in;">Water levels at the Ward Creek Reservoir in Grand Mesa, Colo., have gone down in recent years
because of persistent drought conditions. (Carolyn Van Houten/The Washington Post)</span></span><span style="font-size:14.5pt;font-family:Gothic sans-serif;color:#111111;"></span></p>
<p class="ydp52dc2b47yiv6704024068MsoNormal" style="line-height:16.5pt;vertical-align:baseline;"><span class="ydp52dc2b47yiv6704024068by-lbl"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Gothic sans-serif;color:#666666;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in;">By </span></span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Gothic sans-serif;color:#666666;"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/andrew-freedman/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><b><span style="font-family:FranklinITCProBold;color:#1955A5;text-decoration:none;">Andrew
Freedman</span></b></a> <span class="ydp52dc2b47yiv6704024068byline-divider-lbl"><span style="border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in;">and
</span></span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/darryl-fears/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><b><span style="font-family:FranklinITCProBold;color:#1955A5;text-decoration:none;">Darryl Fears</span></b></a></span></p>
<p class="ydp52dc2b47yiv6704024068MsoNormal" style="line-height:16.5pt;vertical-align:baseline;"><span class="ydp52dc2b47yiv6704024068author-timestamp"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Gothic sans-serif;color:#666666;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in;">April 16 at 2:00 PM</span></span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Gothic sans-serif;color:#666666;"></span></p>
<p style="margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:13.5pt;margin-left:0in;vertical-align:baseline;outline:0px;">
<span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:serif;color:#111111;"> </span></p>
<p style="margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:13.5pt;margin-left:0in;vertical-align:baseline;">
<span style="font-size:12.5pt;font-family:serif;color:#111111;">A vast region of the western United States, extending from California, Arizona and New Mexico north to Oregon and Idaho, is in the grips of the first climate change-induced megadrought
observed in the past 1,200 years, a study shows. The finding means the phenomenon is no longer a threat for millions to worry about in the future, but is already here.</span></p>
<p style="margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:13.5pt;margin-left:0in;vertical-align:baseline;outline:0px;">
<span style="font-size:12.5pt;font-family:serif;color:#111111;">The megadrought has emerged while thirsty, expanding cities are on a collision course with the water demands of farmers and with environmental interests, posing nightmare scenarios for
water managers in fast-growing states.</span></p>
<p style="margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:13.5pt;margin-left:0in;vertical-align:baseline;outline:0px;">
<span style="font-size:12.5pt;font-family:serif;color:#111111;">A megadrought is broadly defined as a severe drought that occurs across a broad region for a long duration, typically multiple decades.</span></p>
<p style="margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:13.5pt;margin-left:0in;vertical-align:baseline;outline:0px;">
<span style="font-size:12.5pt;font-family:serif;color:#111111;">Unlike historical megadroughts triggered by natural climate cycles, emissions of heat-trapping gases from human activities have contributed to the current one, the study finds. Warming
temperatures and increasing evaporation, along with earlier spring snowmelt, have pushed the Southwest into its second-worst drought in more than a millennium of observations.</span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;vertical-align:baseline;"><span style="font-size:12.5pt;font-family:serif;color:#111111;">The study, <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/cgi/doi/10.1126/science.abb6902" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color:#2C6CB4;text-decoration:none;">published
in the journal Science</span></a> on Thursday, compares modern soil moisture data with historical records gleaned from tree rings, and finds that when compared with all droughts seen since the year 800 across western North America, the 19-year drought that
began in 2000 and continued through 2018 (this drought is still ongoing, though the study’s data is analyzed through 2018) was worse than almost all other megadroughts in this region.</span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;vertical-align:baseline;"><span style="font-size:12.5pt;font-family:serif;color:#111111;"> </span></p>
<p style="margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:13.5pt;margin-left:0in;vertical-align:baseline;outline:0px;">
<span style="font-size:12.5pt;font-family:serif;color:#111111;">The researchers, who painstakingly reconstructed soil moisture records from 1,586 tree-ring chronologies to determine drought severity, found only one megadrought that occurred in the
late 1500s was more intense.</span></p>
<p style="margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:13.5pt;margin-left:0in;vertical-align:baseline;outline:0px;">
<span style="font-size:12.5pt;font-family:serif;color:#111111;">Historical megadroughts, spanning vast regions and multiple decades, were triggered by natural fluctuations in tropical ocean conditions, such as La Niña, the cyclic cooling of waters
in the tropical Pacific.</span></p>
<p style="margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:13.5pt;margin-left:0in;vertical-align:baseline;outline:0px;">
<span style="font-size:12.5pt;font-family:serif;color:#111111;">“The megadrought era seems to be reemerging, but for a different reason than the [past] megadroughts,” said Park Williams, the study’s lead author and a researcher at the Lamont-Doherty
Earth Observatory at Columbia University.</span></p>
<p style="margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:13.5pt;margin-left:0in;vertical-align:baseline;outline:0px;">
<span style="font-size:12.5pt;font-family:serif;color:#111111;">Although many areas in the West had a productive wet season in 2019 and some this year, “you can’t go anywhere in the West without having suffered drought on a millennial scale,” Williams
said, noting that megadroughts contain relatively wet periods interspersed between parched years.</span></p>
<p style="margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:13.5pt;margin-left:0in;vertical-align:baseline;outline:0px;">
<span style="font-size:12.5pt;font-family:serif;color:#111111;">“I think the important lesson that comes out of this is that climate change is not a future problem,” said Benjamin I. Cook, a NASA climate scientist and co-author of the study. “Climate
change is a problem today. The more we look, the more we find this event was worse because of climate change.”</span></p>
<p style="margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:13.5pt;margin-left:0in;vertical-align:baseline;outline:0px;">
<span style="font-size:12.5pt;font-family:serif;color:#111111;">The study is part scientific grunt work, involving sifting through drought records to find past instances of comparable conditions, and part sophisticated sleuthing that employs computer
models to determine how climate change is altering the likelihood of an event like this one.</span></p>
<p style="margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:13.5pt;margin-left:0in;vertical-align:baseline;outline:0px;">
<span style="font-size:12.5pt;font-family:serif;color:#111111;">Cook said the researchers analyzed climate models for the region, which showed warming trends and changes in precipitation. They compared soil moisture with and without global warming-induced
trends, “and we were able to determine that 30 to 50 percent of the current drought is attributable to climate change.”</span></p>
<p style="margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:13.5pt;margin-left:0in;vertical-align:baseline;outline:0px;">
<span style="font-size:12.5pt;font-family:serif;color:#111111;">That conclusion is a first, says Jonathan Overpeck, a climate researcher at the University of Michigan who did not participate in the new study.</span></p>
<p style="margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:13.5pt;margin-left:0in;vertical-align:baseline;outline:0px;">
<span style="font-size:12.5pt;font-family:serif;color:#111111;">“They are the first to show conclusively that we’re experiencing our nation’s first megadrought of the instrumental era,” he said via email.</span></p>
<p style="margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:13.5pt;margin-left:0in;vertical-align:baseline;outline:0px;">
<span style="font-size:12.5pt;font-family:serif;color:#111111;">“The real take home,” Overpeck said, “is that the Southwest is being baked by the burning of fossil fuels and other human activities, and the future implications are dire if we don’t stop
climate change.”</span></p>
<h3 style="margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:9.0pt;margin-left:0in;line-height:22.5pt;vertical-align:baseline;outline:0px;">
<span style="font-size:12.5pt;font-family:Gothic sans-serif;color:#2A2A2A;">Looking for a megadrought, only to find it’s already here</span></h3>
<p class="ydp52dc2b47yiv6704024068MsoNormal" style="vertical-align:baseline;"><a name="XL4D4GH3IYI6THQCDVC4WPP2R4"></a><span style="font-size:12.5pt;font-family:Gothic sans-serif;color:#111111;"><img border="0" width="3" height="2" style="width:.0333in;min-height:.025in;" id="ydp52dc2b47yiv6704024068Picture_x0020_4" src="cid:f9470ac3-e068-05e3-d2e3-563f1000e386@yahoo.com" data-inlineimagemanipulating="true" class=""><br>
</span><span class="ydp52dc2b47yiv6704024068pb-caption"><span style="font-size:12.5pt;font-family:Gothic sans-serif;color:#6E6E6E;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in;">Fire crews look for remaining hot spots left over by the Getty Fire, which destroyed a dozen
homes, during the early morning hours in Brentwood, Calif., in October. (Michael Robinson Chavez/The Washington Post)</span></span><span style="font-size:12.5pt;font-family:Gothic sans-serif;color:#111111;"></span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;vertical-align:baseline;outline:0px;">
<span style="font-size:12.5pt;font-family:serif;color:#111111;">In 2015, Cook <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/todays-drought-in-the-west-is-nothing-compared-to-what-may-be-coming/2015/02/12/0041646a-b2d9-11e4-854b-a38d13486ba1_story.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color:#2C6CB4;text-decoration:none;">took
part in a study</span></a> that predicted a megadrought would grip the American Southwest starting about 2050 and persist for 35 years, with a few wet years to break long dry spells.</span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;vertical-align:baseline;"><span style="font-size:12.5pt;font-family:serif;color:#111111;"> </span></p>
<p style="margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:13.5pt;margin-left:0in;vertical-align:baseline;outline:0px;">
<span style="font-size:12.5pt;font-family:serif;color:#111111;">At the time, California was experiencing a severe four-year drought. As it dragged past a fifth year, Cook and others asked a question: “Are these changes in drought patterns that we expected
in the future already beginning to happen?”</span></p>
<p style="margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:13.5pt;margin-left:0in;vertical-align:baseline;outline:0px;">
<span style="font-size:12.5pt;font-family:serif;color:#111111;">They then set out to answer that question.</span></p>
<p style="margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:13.5pt;margin-left:0in;vertical-align:baseline;outline:0px;">
<span style="font-size:12.5pt;font-family:serif;color:#111111;">For the study, the authors started from scratch, analyzing tree-ring data rather than relying solely on archived information. They took apart calculations already in the record and modified
them where needed. Not only was a megadrought happening, they concluded, it had been in progress since the turn of the century.</span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;vertical-align:baseline;outline:0px;">
<span style="font-size:12.5pt;font-family:serif;color:#111111;">The same year that Cook and other researchers published their first study, a Stanford University scientist, Noah Diffenbaugh, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/03/02/californias-terrifying-forecast-in-the-future-it-could-face-droughts-nearly-every-year/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color:#2C6CB4;text-decoration:none;">led
a separate study</span></a> that said rising temperatures and significant declines in snow and rainfall will parch California for years to come.</span></p>
<p style="margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:13.5pt;margin-left:0in;vertical-align:baseline;outline:0px;">
<span style="font-size:12.5pt;font-family:serif;color:#111111;">Diffenbaugh, a professor and senior fellow who studies the Southwest, had also analyzed data showing that the region was becoming hotter and drier. He said Thursday’s study, which he was
not involved with, is a breakthrough because of its comparison of droughts in the past two decades to those in the previous thousand years.</span></p>
<p style="margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:13.5pt;margin-left:0in;vertical-align:baseline;outline:0px;">
<span style="font-size:12.5pt;font-family:serif;color:#111111;">“Placing the two-decade period in the whole region in the context of the last millennium is very striking, very powerful,” Diffenbaugh said. “We can conclude that without the warming,
this period would not have produced such a severe, regionwide drought.”</span></p>
<h3 style="margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:9.0pt;margin-left:0in;line-height:22.5pt;vertical-align:baseline;outline:0px;">
<span style="font-size:12.5pt;font-family:Gothic sans-serif;color:#2A2A2A;">What this means for the West</span></h3>
<p style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;vertical-align:baseline;outline:0px;">
<span style="font-size:12.5pt;font-family:serif;color:#111111;">Valerie Trouet, a researcher at the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research at the <a href="https://ltrr.arizona.edu/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color:#2C6CB4;text-decoration:none;">University of Arizona</span></a>,
says that the megadroughts of the past brought about major societal impacts, particularly those that persisted for decades.</span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;vertical-align:baseline;"><span style="font-size:12.5pt;font-family:serif;color:#111111;"> </span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;vertical-align:baseline;outline:0px;">
<span style="font-size:12.5pt;font-family:serif;color:#111111;">For example, the megadrought seen in the late 800s is <a href="https://eos.org/articles/severe-drought-may-have-helped-hasten-ancient-mayas-collapse" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color:#2C6CB4;text-decoration:none;">thought
to have instigated</span></a> the downfall of the Mayan civilization. The severe drought in the 16th century may have contributed to the Chichimeca War in Mexico, during which Native Americans and European settlers fought for decades.</span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;vertical-align:baseline;"><span style="font-size:12.5pt;font-family:serif;color:#111111;"> </span></p>
<p style="margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:13.5pt;margin-left:0in;vertical-align:baseline;">
<span style="font-size:12.5pt;font-family:serif;color:#111111;">“All of these past megadroughts have had severe impacts,” Trouet said in an interview. “We can expect there to be societal impacts now, too.”</span></p>
<p style="margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:13.5pt;margin-left:0in;vertical-align:baseline;outline:0px;">
<span style="font-size:12.5pt;font-family:serif;color:#111111;">These effects may not be as devastating in the future, however. Modern humans have more ways to adapt, Cook said.</span></p>
<p style="margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:13.5pt;margin-left:0in;vertical-align:baseline;outline:0px;">
<span style="font-size:12.5pt;font-family:serif;color:#111111;">“There are a lot of things we can do about it. People in the West are dealing with this drought in a number of ways,” Cook said.</span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;vertical-align:baseline;outline:0px;">
<span style="font-size:12.5pt;font-family:serif;color:#111111;">California has already provided a model for living in a warmer and drier region, although it has involved sacrifice at times. Amid its drought in 2015, the state took aggressive steps
to preserve water and limit wildfires on thirsty land with varying success. Former governor Jerry Brown (D) <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/calif-governor-orders-statewide-mandatory-water-restrictions/2015/04/01/3495867a-d89e-11e4-8103-fa84725dbf9d_story.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color:#2C6CB4;text-decoration:none;">imposed
the first water restrictions in state history</span></a> and declared that watering lawns was going to be “a thing of the past” in California.</span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;vertical-align:baseline;"><span style="font-size:12.5pt;font-family:serif;color:#111111;"> </span></p>
<p style="margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:13.5pt;margin-left:0in;vertical-align:baseline;outline:0px;">
<span style="font-size:12.5pt;font-family:serif;color:#111111;">Water utilities essentially rationed supply, telling residents to dramatically cut the minutes they showered to no longer than 12 and all but mandating more efficient machines for laundry
and dish washing. Utilities encouraged homeowners to purchase new appliances with rebates subsidized by the state, water bills spiked and penalties were imposed on any household that went over their limits. Neighbors spied on neighbors who washed cars, watered
grass and sprayed driveways, all outlawed.</span></p>
<p class="ydp52dc2b47yiv6704024068MsoNormal" style="vertical-align:baseline;"><a name="MKVEVGD754I6VBGCA6JNQWIZCE"></a><span style="font-size:12.5pt;font-family:Gothic sans-serif;color:#111111;"><img border="0" style="width: 100%; max-width: 800px;" id="ydp52dc2b47yiv6704024068Picture_x0020_3" src="cid:fe28e132-2e38-3a8f-3a2f-95278ae059b5@yahoo.com" data-inlineimagemanipulating="true"><br>
</span><span class="ydp52dc2b47yiv6704024068pb-caption"><span style="font-size:12.5pt;font-family:Gothic sans-serif;color:#6E6E6E;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in;">A swimming pool contrasts with the drought-dried landscape in East Porterville, Calif., in
2015. With access to water limited, the pool's owner doesn't drain it, instead using chemicals to keep it clean. (Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post)</span></span><span style="font-size:12.5pt;font-family:Gothic sans-serif;color:#111111;"></span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;vertical-align:baseline;outline:0px;">
<span style="font-size:12.5pt;font-family:serif;color:#111111;"> </span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;vertical-align:baseline;"><span style="font-size:12.5pt;font-family:serif;color:#111111;">East Porterville, Calif., in the Central Valley <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/no-running-water-and-no-solutions-as-californias-driest-county-despairs/2016/02/13/ec0b5608-c5de-11e5-a4aa-f25866ba0dc6_story.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color:#2C6CB4;text-decoration:none;">became
a town without water</span></a>. A church set up a shower trailer so residents whose wells went dry could wash. The state placed water tanks outside homes so their toilets would flush. Laundering clothes, washing hands and brushing teeth became luxuries.</span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;vertical-align:baseline;outline:0px;">
<span style="font-size:12.5pt;font-family:serif;color:#111111;"> </span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;vertical-align:baseline;"><span style="font-size:12.5pt;font-family:serif;color:#111111;">The drought and the drive to save water had environmental consequences, as well. It resulted in the death of trees that
improved air quality, provided animal habitats and beautified urban areas across California. Urban trees joined about <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/californias-drive-to-save-water-is-killing-trees-hurting-utilities-and-raising-taxes/2016/02/27/1bd88a50-d71d-11e5-b195-2e29a4e13425_story.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color:#2C6CB4;text-decoration:none;">12.5
million wild trees that died</span></a> in dry California forests during 2015’s drought, according to the U.S. Forest Service.</span></p>
<p style="margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:13.5pt;margin-left:0in;vertical-align:baseline;outline:0px;">
<span style="font-size:12.5pt;font-family:serif;color:#111111;"> </span></p>
<p style="margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:13.5pt;margin-left:0in;vertical-align:baseline;">
<span style="font-size:12.5pt;font-family:serif;color:#111111;">Such serious drought effects happened with only about 1 degree Celsius of warming since the industrial revolution, Diffenbaugh said. “The impacts we’ve already seen from one degree of
warming really highlights the intensification of what’s coming,” he said.</span></p>
<p class="ydp52dc2b47yiv6704024068MsoNormal" style="vertical-align:baseline;outline:0px;">
<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/andrew-freedman/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Gothic sans-serif;color:#1955A5;text-decoration:none;"><img border="0" width="60" height="60" style="width:.625in;min-height:.625in;" id="ydp52dc2b47yiv6704024068Picture_x0020_2" src="cid:145b8643-3d82-c955-a627-02a900b96df9@yahoo.com" data-inlineimagemanipulating="true" class=""></span></a><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Gothic sans-serif;color:#111111;"></span></p>
<p class="ydp52dc2b47yiv6704024068MsoNormal" style="vertical-align:baseline;"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Gothic sans-serif;color:#111111;"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/andrew-freedman/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:FranklinITCProBold;color:#1955A5;text-decoration:none;">Andrew
Freedman</span></a> </span><span class="ydp52dc2b47yiv6704024068pb-author-role"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Gothic sans-serif;color:#666666;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in;">Andrew Freedman edits and reports on extreme weather and climate science
for the Capital Weather Gang. He has covered science, with a specialization in climate research and policy, for Axios, Mashable, Climate Central, E&E Daily and other publications. <a href="https://twitter.com/Afreedma" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color:black;text-decoration:none;">Follow </span></a></span></span><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Gothic sans-serif;color:#111111;"></span></p>
<p class="ydp52dc2b47yiv6704024068MsoNormal" style="vertical-align:baseline;"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/darryl-fears/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Gothic sans-serif;color:#1955A5;text-decoration:none;"><img border="0" width="60" height="60" style="width:.625in;min-height:.625in;" id="ydp52dc2b47yiv6704024068Picture_x0020_1" src="cid:57514677-1e0e-63cf-5920-0e0884bd597e@yahoo.com" data-inlineimagemanipulating="true" class=""></span></a><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Gothic sans-serif;color:#111111;"></span></p>
<p class="ydp52dc2b47yiv6704024068MsoNormal" style="vertical-align:baseline;"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Gothic sans-serif;color:#111111;"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/darryl-fears/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:FranklinITCProBold;color:#1955A5;text-decoration:none;">Darryl
Fears</span></a> </span><span class="ydp52dc2b47yiv6704024068pb-author-role"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Gothic sans-serif;color:#666666;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in;">Darryl Fears is a reporter on the national staff who covers the Interior
Department, issues affecting wildlife and the Chesapeake Bay watershed. <a href="https://twitter.com/bydarrylfears" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color:black;text-decoration:none;">Follow </span></a></span></span><span class="ydp52dc2b47yiv6704024068pb-author-role"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;color:#666666;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in;"></span></span></p>
<p class="ydp52dc2b47yiv6704024068MsoNormal" style="vertical-align:baseline;"><span class="ydp52dc2b47yiv6704024068pb-author-role"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Gothic sans-serif;color:#666666;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="ydp52dc2b47yiv6704024068MsoNormal" style="line-height:0%;background:#E6E6E6;"><span style="color:black;"><a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/368/6488" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:sans-serif;color:blue;text-decoration:none;"><img border="0" style="width: 122px; max-width: 122px;" id="ydp52dc2b47yiv6704024068Picture_x0020_6" src="cid:8048c76b-1c89-4f0a-dfab-c79753e38a93@yahoo.com" alt="Science: 368 (6488)" data-inlineimagemanipulating="true" class=""></span></a></span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:sans-serif;color:#333333;"></span></p>
<h3 style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;background:#E6E6E6;">
<span style="font-family:sans-serif;color:#333333;"><a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/368/6488" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span class="ydp52dc2b47yiv6704024068highwire-cite-title"><span style="color:#37588A;text-decoration:none;">Science</span></span></a></span></h3>
<p class="ydp52dc2b47yiv6704024068highwire-cite-metadata" style="margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:5.65pt;margin-left:0in;background:#E6E6E6;">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:sans-serif;color:#666666;">Vol 368, Issue 6488<br>
17 April 2020</span></p>
<p class="ydp52dc2b47yiv6704024068toc" style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;background:#E6E6E6;">
<span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Symbol;color:#333333;"><span>·<span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-family: New;">
</span></span></span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:sans-serif;color:#333333;"><a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/368/6488.toc" title="Table of Contents" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color:#37588A;text-decoration:none;">Table of
Contents</span></a></span></p>
<p class="ydp52dc2b47yiv6704024068tocpdf" style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;background:#E6E6E6;">
<span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Symbol;color:#333333;"><span>·<span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-family: New;">
</span></span></span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:sans-serif;color:#333333;"><a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/368/6488.toc.pdf" title="Print Table of Contents" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color:#37588A;text-decoration:none;">Print
Table of Contents</span></a></span></p>
<p class="ydp52dc2b47yiv6704024068last" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:sans-serif;color:#333333;"> </span></p>
<p class="ydp52dc2b47yiv6704024068MsoNormal"><span class="ydp52dc2b47yiv6704024068overlinesection"><b><span style="font-family:sans-serif;color:#D40016;text-transform:uppercase;letter-spacing:.4pt;">PERSPECTIVE</span></b></span><span class="ydp52dc2b47yiv6704024068overlinesubject"><span style="font-family:sans-serif;color:#666666;text-transform:uppercase;letter-spacing:.4pt;">CLIMATE</span></span><b><span style="font-family:sans-serif;color:#D40016;text-transform:uppercase;letter-spacing:.4pt;"></span></b></p>
<h1 style="margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:11.25pt;margin-left:0in;">
<span style="font-family:sans-serif;font-weight:normal;">Anthropogenic megadrought</span></h1>
<p class="ydp52dc2b47yiv6704024068last" style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family:sans-serif;color:#666666;"><span>1.<span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-family: New;">
</span></span></span></b><span class="ydp52dc2b47yiv6704024068name"><b><span style="font-family:sans-serif;color:#666666;">David W. Stahle</span></b></span><b><span style="font-family:sans-serif;color:#666666;"></span></b></p>
<p class="ydp52dc2b47yiv6704024068contributor-listreveal" style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;cursor:pointer;">
<span class="ydp52dc2b47yiv6704024068contributor-listtoggler"> </span><span class="ydp52dc2b47yiv6704024068collapsed-text">See all</span><span class="ydp52dc2b47yiv6704024068contributor-listtoggler"> authors and affiliations</span></p>
<p class="ydp52dc2b47yiv6704024068MsoNormal"><cite><span style="font-family:sans-serif;color:#666666;">Science </span></cite><span style="color:#666666;"> 17 Apr 2020:<br>
Vol. 368, Issue 6488, pp. 238-239<br>
DOI: 10.1126/science.abb6902</span></p>
<p class="ydp52dc2b47yiv6704024068MsoNormal" style="vertical-align:baseline;"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Gothic sans-serif;color:#111111;"> </span></p>
<h2 style="margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;background:white;">
<span style="font-family:sans-serif;color:#333333;">Summary</span></h2>
<p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;" id="ydp52dc2b47yiv6704024068p-3">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:sans-serif;color:#333333;">Historical documents from the Spanish Entrada on the northern frontier of New Spain (now the U.S. Southwest) include anecdotal evidence for unusual aridity in the late 16th century
(<em><span style="font-family:sans-serif;">1</span></em>). However, a quantitative record of the 16th-century megadrought has only recently been obtained from hundreds of exactly dated and moisture-sensitive tree-ring chronologies developed across
Canada, the United States, and Mexico. On page 314 of this issue, Williams <em><span style="font-family:sans-serif;">et al.</span></em> (<em><span style="font-family:sans-serif;">2</span></em>) provide a new assessment of proxy climate
data from the U.S. Southwest. They determine that the 16th-century megadrought was the worst multidecadal drought episode in the Southwest over the past 1200 years, and that the second-worst event occurred from 2000 to 2018 over southwestern North America
(SWNA) and may be ongoing. The study also pinpoints substantial anthropogenic (human) contribution to the severity of the current drought.</span></p>
<p class="ydp52dc2b47yiv6704024068MsoNormal" style="background:white;"><span class="ydp52dc2b47yiv6704024068ali-license-ref"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:sans-serif;color:#333333;"><a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/about/science-licenses-journal-article-reuse" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><b><span style="color:#37588A;">http://www.sciencemag.org/about/science-licenses-journal-article-reuse</span></b></a></span></span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:sans-serif;color:#333333;"></span></p>
<p class="ydp52dc2b47yiv6704024068MsoNormal"> </p>
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