Justin Worland has a Time article about the dry West:
It might not be ending anytime soon, either. California’s three years of low rainfall is the region’s worst drought in twelve hundred years, according to a new study. Record high temperatures combined with unusually low levels of precipitation have been the primary causes of the dry conditions, according to a study in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. “It was a surprise,” study author Kevin Anchukaitis told the Los Angeles Times of the findings. “I don’t think we expected to see that at all.”Rico says that will suck... (But in the 'duh' category, isn't 'unusually low levels of precipitation' the very definition of a drought?) Fortunately, if you go back twelve hundred years, you only affect a small bunch of California natives, since even the Spanish hadn't showed up yet...
The drought has led to tremendous economic costs in the state, including an expected two billion dollars and seventeen thousand farming jobs this year alone, according to a report from the University of California at Davis. It’s also expected to increase food prices across the country.
And the problem may not be going away soon. Over forty percent of three-year droughts continue past their third year, according to the Times.
But, of course, just as soon as everyone gets in a tizzy about the drought, a huge storm rolls in and dumps a ton of water on the state...
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