Mega Drought to Hit U.S.

[Rick]

Will it? Won't it? Who knows? NASA is a pretty respectable organization. One thing is for certain. It's a reminder that Mother Earth is ever changing and we just happen to be living in a very nice time frame weather wise. Even if partly true it means that we will see less water over the long term and it's something that needs to be at the forefront of planning.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/nation...ba1_story.html

[TXyakr]

Very good article among many on the topic Rick. Potable water is in my opinion the #1 issue of survival, also water for agriculture.

Here is an fairly good video about various programs around the State of Texas and how they are dealing with water shortages.
http://video.klru.tv/video/2365345995/

"The city of Wichita Falls, Texas, may soon become the first in the country where half of the drinking water comes directly from wastewater."
http://www.npr.org/2014/05/06/309101...lets-for-water

So perhaps Texas are "greener" than Californians or make that "browner", LOL. Well they filtered the brown out, so we assume. ha ha ha

Now I challenge y'all from the "left coast" to post links of how your states and cities are meeting the challenge.

[xjosh40x]

Well being in south Mississippi I can get a shovel and dig 18 inches and get water. I think I'd be one of the last effected by a drought. That being said there is still Mother Nature that can throw a curve and I'd be the very first without available water, so all the more reason to be ready for what She throws at us.

[TXyakr]

If you were way far south Mississippi or Louisiana you could become part of the Gulf of Mexico and that water is not very potable. Much of Texas and the deep south was "under the sea" according to the fossil record but that was a few years ago. Not sure how soon that cycle will repeat itself. I'll probably not live that long but my descendants might.

[hunter63]

I guess this report will do till another one comes around........

There are only two occupations that allows 33 % success to considered acceptable.....Weather predictors and major league baseball players.....
Batting over .300......All star players..

[TXyakr]

Personally I take issue with a few points when journalist take complex issues and attempt to overly simplify them for example: "there is an 80 percent chance that such an extended drought will strike between 2050 and 2099, unless world governments act aggressively to mitigate impacts from climate change"

Also talking excessively about El Niño/La Niña these Southern Oscillation (ENSO) that can affect weather patterns around the globe, but 10 other naturally occurring ocean-atmosphere oscillations in the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans have been recognized and named including the North Atlantic Oscillation, Indian Ocean Dipole. These have a lot of influence on our climate in N.A.

http://www.whoi.edu/main/topic/el-ni...r-oscillations

So yes it is impossible to be exact on predictions but a general estimate is reasonable. Sorta like saying interest rates generally go up when the markets are down, but exactly how much or on what date … heck if I know.

Soil samples, ice core samples, tree rings, etc all seem to agree this is cyclical how much does/has human or dinosaur behavior add to it, or astroids from outer space, well that is part speculation, part science and a lot of estimation. But mega-droughts have happened and almost certainly will happen again. Exactly when and were is a bit like predicting interest rates or the stock market. If you could do that with 100% accuracy you would be a trillionaire. Good luck with that.

[LowKey]

Most Americans waste far too much water. They aren't helped much by appliance manufacturers.
For instance, I would gladly shut the shower off if I knew I wouldn't get frozen or scalded by turning it back on (a convenient "bucket shower" invention is needed.)
Dishwashers and washing machines are a convenience and they are getting better about water consumption but still use far more water than necessary and are used by people far more often than needed. It should not be considered "gross" to wear most articles of clothing more than a few times before washing (I draw the line a socks and undies though...)
Even something as simple as cleaning the garden veggies shouldn't require copious running water.
And grass lawns are the stupidest mark of water-wasteful vanity there can possibly be.
Using potable (treated) drinking water for any of the above should be reconsidered too.

Changing the mindset of an entire country though? Not happening, probably not even when there is a crisis. Water has been far too cheap for far too long.

[hunter63]

Or as Cody Lunden was lamenting in an episode of Duel Survival.....looking at a pot hole, filled with dank stagnate water, in the Arizona mountains

We collect water, clean and purify it deliver it to your homes.......Then poop in it, and flush it away

[Rick]

Most shower heads have a setting to allow a small amount of water to run to maintain the temperature. Not all but most. All of them in my house have a simple lever that you can turn to reduce the water to a trickle. In addition, all shower heads have to be equipped with flow reducers. Federal law capped the flow of shower heads at 2.5 gallons per minute back in 1992. The sad part is the shower heads kinda suck at being shower heads and most folks remove the reducers.

[LowKey]

A foot operated shower reducer would be the bomb. Fiddling for a little lever on the shower head with soap in your eyes would kinda suck. We don't seem to have those levers on the showerheads in this house...Hmmm...Will look into it.

[kyratshooter]

We live in a big nation that is part of a bigger world and all of it is divided into different climate zones.

Yes, the west is in drought situation. For most of geological history "the west" has been in a condition of drought. It was originally called "The Great American Desert". It was not called "Bring most of your population here, pipe in water and gripe because there is not enough!". We did that on our own without the permission of nature.

The original settlement pattern skipped over that vast waterless area and collected in the Pacific north west. Even the travel routes followed the major rivers of the west. Only the gold rush made people even consider a trip to mid or southern California, Arizona or New Mexico and West Texas was unsettled until the invention of deep drilling and the pumping windmill.

I live in an area where there is an average of around 40" of precipitation per year. 12 miles away a big river transports billions of gallons of water past me each year. 1/4 mile away a big lake holds a couple million gallons, which I access.

This water is filtered, purified and piped into my home and I get to use all I can stand, and I can even use it to water my garden, for $30 per month.

Drought in the west brings me no guilt, sadness or surprise. I am a historian and I have been studying "drought in the west" for my entire professional career. It has always existed and until some asteroid smacks the earth and changes the 23 1/2 % tilt there is going to be a water shortage in the west and it has nothing to do with "Climate Change".

You move into a historically desert area and you are going to have severe drought, and perpetual water shortage.

[Seniorman]

Kyratshooter and TXyakr, please do not cloud the issue with the facts.

S.M.

[randyt]

I live smack dab in the middle, well darn near smack dab in the middle of the great lakes region. Water has never been a problem and I hope it stays that way.

[hunter63]

I live smack dab in the middle, well darn near smack dab in the middle of the great lakes region. Water has never been a problem and I hope it stays that way.

Rodger that......

Lake Michigan
The place...... 800 ft. of frontage on The Kickapoo River.

[hayshaker]

i would say why this draught is happening but i dont want to be run off for bieing a tinfoil kook
but it is true.

[hayshaker]

rick i dont want to say that NASA scientist are schills but they do have thier pentions to consider when they say somthing.
therefore they have to tow the partyline. that said i take little creedence to what they say.

[Rick]

Don't watch the weather forecast I guess.

[randyt]

Rodger that......

Lake Michigan
The place...... 800 ft. of frontage on The Kickapoo River.

I can go east,west or north a few miles and hit one of the great lakes. I think I'm spoiled.

[kyratshooter]

You are not "spoiled", that is the normalcy for your geographic area.

Few people realize that east of the 100th meridian the rainfall averages over 30" per year.

West of the 100th meridian it averages 10" of rainfall per year. That is everything west of Missouri/Iowa/Arkansas/Central TX to include everything in the rain shadow of the Rocky mountains.

By climatic definition a desert is an area that receives less than 10" of rain each year.

Parts of Southern California, AZ, NM, Utah and Nevada average less than 6" per year and they often get the entire amount in a single 24 hour period.

That's the NORMAL precipitation for that region.

Yep, LA, San Diego, Every town in Nevada, Utah and Arizona (1/4 of the US population ???) is smack in the middle of some of the most harsh desert regions in the WORLD, not just the nation. They only exist because we water them artificially.

[hayshaker]

because of mans over consumption of water that entire region will be reclaimed by nature in less than a hundred years.
ditto for the entire north to south strech of land that lies above the ogalala auqifer. that damm dryland farming did it . all those towns
that sprung up in the 18,00,s to settle that region to farm will all disapear.