According to the U.S. Geological Survey, America is facing its worst summer drought since the Dust Bowl years of the Great Depression. The continent is crying out for water, with water levels at close to half those of the drought in the dirty thirties of the previous century.
Deserts are getting drier, crops are failing in wheat farms of Alabama because of rainfall levels 12 inches lower than usual. Lake Okeechobee in southern Florida is drying to the extent that it actually caught fire a couple of weeks ago.
The climatic pattern of North American continent is complex, not fully understood therefore hard to predict. But one thing is established that droughts in North America are linked to the global climate system, in the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans. A wetter Atlantic relates to wetter conditions in American west, whereas a drier Atlantic corresponds to drought and decreased water flow in the West.
The recent drought has its origins in several global-scale atmospheric and oceanic processes that reduce delivery of atmospheric moisture to the Colorado River basin.
Big farmers in the country have no fears of losses as they are well protected by government subsidies and emergency funds, while small farmers are struggling. The impact that drought has brought is severe on flora and fauna. Drought has weakened the tree roots, which are vulnerable to predators even. Frogs, red squirrels and animals of this type who cannot bear record high temperatures, have been forced to move higher up the mountains in search of cooler temperatures.
Mountains have also given in to the drought. Mount Lemmon, which rises above the city of Tucson, once boasted the southernmost ski resort in the US, has barely attracted any snow these drought years. Lake Powell on the upper Colorado River helps provide water across a vast expanse of the West, has been more than half empty for years, with little prospect of filling up in the near future. The drought is impacting the forests and the Rocky Mountain eco-system very hard.
Estimates say that the West can expect 10-20 per cent less rainfall by mid-century, increasing chances of air pollution that would kill off many tree species such as water-retaining giant cactus plants and shrink the available water supply by as much as 25%.
Southeast is the most vulnerable and may be alleviated any moment by the onset of the tropical storm season. People have been restricted access to lawn sprinklers beyond one hour per day and some places one hour only every other day.
However, present drought has uncovered what some are calling the most significant archaeological finds in Lake Okeechobee, Palm Beach County’s recent history. Archaeologists uncovered human bone fragments, tools, bits of pottery and ceremonial jewellery believed to have belonged to the natives who lived near the lake before the Spanish surfaced on the land in the 16th century.
The great Dust Bowl disaster was the result of terrible gushing storms causing major ecological and agricultural damage to wheat bowl in the middle of the country, the American prairies in the 1930s. It left half a million Americans homeless.
America has for long been ignoring global warming. But, global warming’s worst form has attacked the continent in the form of rising temperatures and drought. Environmentalists fear that America is in the middle of one of the first big indicators of climate change impacts.
The 1930s drought lasted less than a decade. It is feared that the present one could remain for 100 years.
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Via: Theindependent.co.uk