Southwest U.S. drought, worst in a century, linked by NOAA to climate change
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Human-caused climate change has intensified the withering drought gripping the Southwestern United States, the region's most severe on record, with precipitation at the lowest 20-month level documented since 1895, a U.S. government report said on Tuesday.
Over the same period, from January 2020 through August 2021, the region also experienced the third-highest daily average temperatures measured since record-keeping began near the end of the 19th century, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) drought task force.
The study warned that extreme drought conditions are likely to worsen and repeat themselves "until stringent climate mitigation is pursued and regional warming trends are reversed."
The drought emerged in early 2020 in California, Nevada and the "Four Corners" states of Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico and has led to unprecedented water shortages in reservoirs across the region, while fueling devastating western wildfires over the past two years, the report noted.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/southwest-u-s-drought-worst-in-a-century-linked-by-noaa-to-climate-change/ar-AAOGgE7